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Amid ongoing controversy in the healthcare sector, President Gustavo Petro addressed a group of doctors on social media who voiced their discontent with his administration’s decision to raise the minimum wage by 23% for 2026, which he termed ‘vital salary’.
The complaint, shared on platform X, referred to the minimum wage increase for healthcare personnel like security guards, stretcher-bearers, cleaning staff, secretaries, and certain administrative employees.
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“In offices, hospitals, and clinics, the government used its quantum math to increase salaries for minimum-wage roles like security guards, cleaning staff, stretcher-bearers, secretaries, and some administrative personnel by 23%; the government believes this will have no impact on operations and costs. They live in Narnia,” the doctors claimed on social media.
The original message, which quickly went viral, was posted from the official account of a group of Colombian doctors. In the post, healthcare professionals expressed their disagreement with the wage hike, suggesting that the measure would not positively impact the healthcare system’s operation and would have severe implications for service quality.
President Gustavo Petro strongly responded to this comment on the same social media platform, defending his administration’s decision and severely criticizing the private Health Promotion Entities (EPS) in Colombia.
The president began his message by stating that the healthcare system had suffered significant distortions due to the contracting policies enforced by the EPS, which, according to Petro, compromised the well-being of healthcare personnel and degraded patient services.
The president wrote in his message: “The system of private EPS, as financial insurers, sacrificed the quality of life of healthcare personnel through desperate civil contracts. This degraded patient service. The private EPS did not finance the preventive and primary system, which is why emergency rooms are overcrowded.”
“This system solely maximizes profits at the expense of health in Colombia, which is why health levels for Colombians have not improved in the last decade. Now we are reducing the mortality rate from causes that were preventable,” Petro affirmed in his message, clarifying that the measure’s goal was to counter the deficiencies he believes were caused by the EPS.
The president also took the opportunity to call out doctors and the healthcare community, reproaching their stance in defense of what he considered private interests instead of prioritizing the well-being of medical personnel and patients.
The president added to his lengthy message in defense of his decree for the wage increase: “Advances in medical science have not reached society, and it’s the worst measure of ineffectiveness for saving lives. Now, with the vital salary, there will be increased funding for healthcare personnel, leading to better patient care. It’s sad to see a so-called association of doctors fighting against improving healthcare personnel’s living standards; they carry those names but are funded by private EPS.
“They do not defend Nueva EPS, which left nearly 10 trillion pesos unpaid in the hands of its previous administrators, and now illegally withhold two trillion to prevent it from operating,” Petro concluded.
Regarding the accumulated debt of the EPS, the president asserted that “every EPS owner must repay what is owed regarding their public debt. The budgets of Bogotá and Medellín must cover the debt of their EPS, and the Nation must do the same for half of Nueva EPS’s debt. We will issue regulations for this. I will demand accountability from judges who have frozen healthcare funds,” emphasizing his intention to take legal action against those responsible for the sector’s debt.
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