Finally, the Government’s announcement was finally made: an end to gender discrimination in the isapres plans. Since April 1, the circulation published by the Superintendency of Health that modified the table of factors affecting only women began to govern the circular published by the Superintendency of Health.
According to La Tercera, since last month, women who switched plans or entered the system saw a drop in the prices charged to them by insurers. By way of example, a 30-year-old contributor would have seen an average 53% drop in her open isapres plans.
The most favored women with this circular were those who are of childbearing age, older adults and children under 2 years of age.
It should be noted that, according to the morning, the month of April recorded a historical number of women who signed new contracts with isapres. About 60% of those who signed up for a plan were women, beating men for the first time.
The change that unified the factor tables also means that, in some cases, men who switch plans will see a price hike, mainly both unsused men and young men.
Will there be any rise anyway?
Let us remember that, last March, the Superintendency of Health reported that the isapres will again raise the price of their plans, reaching 4.5% on average.
Superintendent Patricio Fernández explained, at the time, that the institution he leads held talks with the isapres to try to freeze the tariffs for three months. However, no agreement was reached. He also stressed that he had no powers to force them to reduce their prices.
The new prices will start to apply from July 2020 and will apply to each contract in the month of their respective annuity. The adequacy letters notifying these increases to the affiliates will be sent by the corporations from April 2020, 90 days in advance of the month of fulfillment of the annuity of each contract.
However, the rise was not welcomed with open arms. The National Corporation of Consumers and Users (Conadecus) reported, on May 3, that it entered the Court of Appeals of Santiago an appeal of protection against isapres, so it estimates a unilateral and unjustified increase in the prices of the health plans of its affiliates, recently announced by health institutions.
