Food or remedies? In Milei’s Argentina, medicines are a luxury

In the pharmacy of Argentina people check the price of the medicine and do not buy it, even antibiotics. Some stopped their anti-inflammatory treatments. hypertension or the cholesterol. Others stopped receiving crucial medicines to survive from the State while the government audits the assistance system.

The drop in sales of 10 million medicines in January, 70% in prescriptions, reveals another side of the crisis where health care became a luxury.

“Between eating and buying the medicine, people choose to eat,” reasons pharmacist Marcela López behind the counter of a pharmacy in Buenos Aires. Those who cannot afford an antibiotic cope with the pain with ibuprofen.

A similar case is that of Viviana Bogado, whose 16-year-old son Daniel needs antibiotics and a special diet.

“I have to buy him milk that costs three times more than regular milk, plus antibiotics and digestive aids. “I had to choose, either his treatment or mine for cholesterol,” says the 53-year-old cook.

Since the ultraliberal president Javier Milei took office in December, medications have increased by 40% above inflation, which at 254% year-on-year is one of the highest in the world and hits a poverty level higher than fifty%.

Ruben Sajem, director of the Center of Argentine Pharmaceutical Professionals, explained to AFP that “Until last year there was an agreement between the government and the laboratories so that prices could be moderated”.

But these agreements were abandoned, as “the regulations and controls carried out by the Secretary of Commerce.”

The drop in sales does not fully reflect chronic patients who cut back on treatments due to rising prices. “Smaller units are being purchased and that is a dramatic situation that statistics do not measure,” Sajem added.

“So, for example, someone who takes medication for hypertension every day buys a blister of 10 tablets and believes that taking it at a time is safe. The reality is that he is of no use to him, sooner or later his health will worsen and end up in greater expense, even for the health system,” he warned.

“There’s no money”

The hardest hit are retirees and informal workers, who represent close to 40% of the labor market.

For the former, whose income fell in February by 32.5% year-on-year, the state system provides them with certain medications for free, in others it covers between 50% and 80% of the cost.

Despite this, Graciela Fuentes, 73 years old and retired from gastronomy, finds it difficult to treat her arthritis.

“I take five medications, two are given to me for free, I spend 85,000 pesos per month (about US$100) almost a third of my retirement. There’s no money”, she says ironically, paraphrasing Milei when she justifies the fierce adjustment of public spending, whose main line of savings in January were retirements and pensions (33%)according to a report from the Argentine Institute of Fiscal Analysis (Iaraf).

For Juan Carlos Orellana, a 55-year-old bricklayer and self-employed worker, the scenario is bleak. Although you can receive free treatment at the public hospital, there are no discounts on medications.

“My wife is using a lot of pain medication for hip and spine problems, she has to have surgery.”he explains to AFP.

That is why he goes to the Community Medicine Bank of the Tzedaká Foundation, a Jewish entity that delivers free medicines to vulnerable populations at a rate of 50,000 people a year.

“It helps me financially a lot, I am unemployed and very grateful, I have no words,” he says after picking up the medication.

The director of the Bank, Fabián Furman, affirms that “There is an increase in the request for help,” but remember that this is only provided for three months, “to expand the range of people” who receive it.

“Pablo doesn’t have time.”

Pablo Riveros is 20 years old and counts the days. Every two weeks he must inject three vials on which his life depends. He suffers from PNH (Paroxysmal Nocturnal Hemoglobinuria), a rare disease that destroys red blood cells for which there is no cure, but there is treatment.

But the treatment costs US$42,000 a month, impossible for his mother, a seamstress in charge of six other children.

“It causes me chronic anemia, bleeding from any route, and a lot of fatigue.”says Riveros, who is not paralyzed by the disease: he paints, plays the piano and goes to university.

Since March 2023, a month after being diagnosed, he began receiving medication from the State through a social assistance program.

The last time he received it was in November “and now the medication has run out,” he says.

His mother, Estela Coronel, says that “The last application was a loan from a hospital that had a dose from a deceased patient.” Meanwhile, the days continue to pass.

The family filed an appeal for protection. “The response was that the State is not denying us medication, but that we have to wait for the audit to finish because for them there is corruption everywhere.” The problem is that “Pablo doesn’t have time,” says the mother.

The government promoted an audit of the program that depends on the Ministry of Human Capital and assists with medications to patients like Riveros or who suffer from cancer, epilepsy or HIV, among other diseases.

The presidential spokesman, Manuel Adorni, assured last Friday that “delivery was never cut off” of medications. “It is painful because you feel like they are mocking you in your face, they cannot deny me something that we are experiencing”says Colonel.