Gerardo Morales showed tickets that reveal that the Argentine served in Bolivia was charged up to the toilet paper

The governor of Jujuy,

Gerardo Morales,

asked Bolivia to give "free" attention to reciprocity in health care, responding with a new open letter to a statement by Bolivia's Minister of Health, Gabriela Montaño, about the case from Jujeño injured in the neighboring country who had to pay health benefits.

"If we provide a free service to our Bolivian citizens in our health system, we will demand the same treatment for Argentine citizens," Morales said. He asked "the respect of the principles of equality and reciprocity between the parties", repayment of 22,000 pesos. Bolivians paid at a public hospital in Oruro and just over $ 9,000 at a clinic in Cochabamba.

The letter, published last night on the official website of the government of Jujuy, became the second open letter of the provincial president, after addressing first to the president of Bolivia, Evo Morales, denouncing a "dehumanized treatment" of Jujuy Manuel Vilca, who has been hospitalized since December in Bolivia for a car accident until his transfer to Argentina last Wednesday.

The media coverage of the case and the intervention, later, of the Jujuy government to settle debts for health benefits and transfer Vilca to the province led Morales to express itself in this sense, Following this, the Bolivian minister was allowed to insure. "that there was no type of discrimination" in the medical care provided.

The governor made available the invoices and payment vouchers that Vilca had to make, through his family and friends, as well as by the government itself to repatriate him. Among what should have been paid, Vilca is detailed: physiological solution, syringes, bandages, gauze, ranitidine, medicines, x-rays and other studies, until an HIV test. In addition, he paid for a thermometer, ambulance transportation, shampoo, comb, hand soap and toilet paper that had been offered to him by the hospital.

At the same time, the official, who has supported the "willingness" to seek a cooperation agreement in the field of health between the two countries, said that Vilca had accepted "the same medical benefits as Bolivians and Bolivians. "

In this regard, Morales said: "I do not share the fact that Manuel received the same treatment from the health authorities as that of a Bolivian citizen.However, I do not worry about the how they treat Bolivian citizens. "

"Yes, I reaffirm the concept of reciprocity between our countries, so if we serve Bolivian citizens free of charge in our health system, we will demand the same treatment for the citizens of Argentina," he added.

In another section of the letter, about the argument used by Montaño to explain the lack of a free and universal health system in Bolivia, about which, as he l & # 39; said, the country can only start moving forward, Morales once again declared that "corresponds to interfering in the domestic affairs of his country", but that in the "province has never refused to a no one, be it national or foreign, correct and free health care, because life in our country is a right we do not know about politics ".

"I am pleased that the decision was made to move to universal and free health, because many Bolivian citizens, who are constantly migrating to mine and especially to my province, are looking for health solutions that obviously do not find them in the country. theirs, "he added.

With information from Telam