Paraguay's Insured Face Double Burden: Paying for Care Amid IPS Shortages and Scandal

Families with loved ones in intensive care at Paraguay's Institute of Social Security (IPS) are enduring a daily financial ordeal, forced to spend up to 800,000 guaranis on essential medications and external private services. This stark reality unfolds even as they make mandatory monthly contributions, highlighting a severe inefficacy within the state healthcare system.

The crisis is compounded by an ongoing scandal surrounding the alleged illicit sale of medications exclusively designated for IPS patients. While internal control authorities investigate this issue at the Central Hospital's family lodging area, the immediate concern for many insured individuals is the critical scarcity of necessary drugs within IPS facilities.

Cristian, whose six-year-old daughter is in intensive care following severe convulsions, described his daily struggle. "In the morning, they give me a prescription to buy medication costing 200 to 300 thousand guaranis. In the afternoon, another prescription just like it. The IPS pharmacy never has anything; they are playing with our family members' health," he recounted. He now spends his days racing between external private pharmacies to procure urgent supplies that the hospital fails to provide.

Beyond medication shortages, the IPS faces significant delays in diagnostic services. Cristian was informed that the waiting list for a brain scan for his daughter was two months long. Consequently, he had to hire a private laboratory, incurring a cost of nearly one million guaranis for the study, which was conducted using their own equipment within the hospital premises.

These mounting expenses, coupled with the inability to work while caring for his child, place an immense and unsustainable burden on insured families. The situation underscores a profound breakdown in the promised comprehensive medical coverage that IPS contributions are meant to secure.

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In the morning, they give me a prescription to buy medication costing 200 to 300 thousand guaranis. In the afternoon, another prescription just like it. The IPS pharmacy never has anything; they are playing with our family members' health.