CHILE: Free Hospital Care for Seniors Over 60

SANTIAGO (La Secunda), March 13, 2006: Newly inaugurated President Michelle Bachelet said Monday that all Chileans older than 60 will immediately begin receiving free care at public hospitals. "This will become effective immediately," the Socialist physician said at a news conference. "This is possible because it does not require a law." The benefit would be for those at least 60 who are registered with the federal insurance system known as Fonasa, Health Minister Maria Soledad Barria told this paper. More than 300,000 people would be eligible, it is estimated. According the last national census in 2002, 1.7 million people of Chile's 16 million people are older than 60. But there was no immediate word on how the Bachelet's program would affect the older Chileans not linked to Fonasa or if they could now join. Chile's first female president, Bachelet stressed that her government will give priority to social issues. She also announced plans to increase the lowest pensions earned by Chileans, and to grant government pensions to elderly citizens who lack an income and to those who cannot work because of physical problems. She said the level of pension benefits will depend on the funds available, which the Finance Ministry is studying. Bachelet, who is considered somewhat more to the left than her fellow Socialist predecessor Ricardo Lagos, said that she aims to implement "a nationwide social protection network" by the end of her four-year term. She said she had appointed Mario Marcel, a socialist economist and former budget director, to head a commission to reform Chile's pioneer private social security system. "Our country's economic situation allows us to continue to grow, and our goal is to make sure that benefits of that growth reach all Chileans," she said.