LatAm’s health infrastructure shown to lag during COVID-19

Latin America’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic did not adequately address health infrastructure and insurance shortfalls, and as a result, the region is ill-prepared for new variants, experts argue. 

“There’s still a tremendous gap that needs to be filled,” Antonio Vergara, president and head of diagnostics at Roche Latin America, told BNamericas, adding that the lack of infrastructure does not only involve hospitals, but also telecom services for telemedicine.

While Vergara acknowledged that the pandemic drove up investments, he said efficiency remains a big challenge that must be tackled by both governments and the private sector. 

“I haven’t received a single call [from public or private stakeholders] on how we can prepare the infrastructure for the next pandemic or other unknown emergencies,” he said, adding that COVID-19 showed the importance of investing in advance. 

“We were not ready for [the COVID-19 pandemic], it was evident that not having the technology and infrastructure ready for use was very important,” Vergara said. 

Vergara was speaking during a health investment webinar held by The Inter-American Dialogue. 

While some countries spent as much as 8% of GDP on their pandemic responses, the amount allocated to health was as low as 1% of that.

“That’s a missed opportunity,” Javier Guzmán, senior policy fellow at the Center for Global Development, said during the same event, adding that despite the higher investment, health was not a priority for governments. 

“Health is still seen as something that’s added to a larger set of investments that are more important,” he said, while also pointing to the risks related to the lack of insurance. 

Guzmán said government expenditure on healthcare as a proportion of total spending in 12 countries in Latin America, including Mexico, Bolivia, Ecuador and Costa Rica, is not expected to return to pre-pandemic levels until 2026.

Both speakers said that private investment could help alleviate the shortfall, but the state should make sure an insurance network exists to prevent users from falling into poverty due to health expenses. 

Vergara highlighted the role of insurers in promoting preventive care, and that telemedicine could make a difference in costs for patients. 

“We need to invest in digital infrastructure that enables the adoption of personal healthcare. This will help insurers to have better outcomes for patients while also improving our understanding of user behaviors,” he said.