Socialized medicine or state-ruled medicine: the Venezuelan dilemma

The economic crisis in which Venezuela is living, caused by the fall in oil prices, has forced the government to reorganize its medical services. A central administrative organ, the National Health Service, has been created. It seeks to develop a social medicine directed at the less favored classes of the population. Notwithstanding the continuously rising costs of private medicine, which, until now, the government has permitted without restrictions, the shadow of government intervention looms ominously over private practice, where subemployment of doctors already exists, along with the growing tendencies of insurance companies to impose economic conditions. The Venezuelan Medical Federation, which, by law, groups all Venezuelan doctors, has began a battle on two main fronts: against the State intervention and against the insurance companies who hope to benefit at the expense of the already underpaid doctors.