President Javier Milei is set to officially split the Social and Health Institute of the Armed Forces and Security (IOSFA) in the coming days due to irregularities in benefits and the accumulated debt of the agency. After several internal debates, as reported by the Noticias Argentinas news agency, the Executive branch will finally proceed with the division of services for the over 600,000 active and retired members it currently serves, with the parallel goal of its long-term dissolution. On one side, the Ministry of Security, led by Alejandra Monteoliva, will take charge of the benefits for the Argentine Naval Prefecture and the National Gendarmerie, the two forces with the largest number of members, and will initiate a bidding process with the country's main prepaid health insurance providers. Similarly, the plan for the development of the Social and Health Institute of the Federal Security Forces (OSFFESEG) is ambitious and also aims to include the Argentine Federal Police (PFA), the Airport Security Police (PSA), and the Federal Penitentiary Service (SPF). With this move, the official seeks to determine the company that can best meet the needs of personnel nationwide to reduce red tape and simplify the demands that have plagued IOSFA. "We need them to sign the divorce papers," admitted officials from the Security ministry regarding the need for a decree that could be published next week in the Official Bulletin with Milei's signature. How it stands Meanwhile, the Ministry of Defense, led by Lieutenant General Carlos Presti, will be responsible for the benefits of the Armed Forces. In this way, the Argentine Army, Navy, and Air Force will receive assistance from the new social health organization that authorities in that ministry are evaluating. Unlike the Security ministry, Defense aims to maintain its current hospital structures for the development of its own social health organization, whose name has not yet been defined. "They asked us to move forward," a official involved in the decree's design told this agency. The process of founding the new social health organization is complex, so both ministries agreed on the need for a temporary structure, which they refer to as the "residual IOSFA," until the services are regularized. In this way, personnel and family members undergoing treatments will maintain access to services within the minimal organism, whose dissolution is planned within a year. With the decree almost finalized in its wording, both ministries await details from the Secretariat of Legal and Technical Affairs, led by María Ibarzabal Murphy, and President Milei's signature, which could come next week. Also pending is the appointment of the forces to the board of the soon-to-be-founded organization. The scheme The debt that IOSFA currently holds, estimated at over 200 billion pesos, would be transferred to the Ministry of Economy, which assures it is in control. "It is a debt of the State to the State. (Photo: NA Archive) (Photo: NA Archive) Under this objective, Presti is working to incorporate specialized personnel into the health administration of the personnel affected by the complexity of accessing current benefits. In this way, to ensure nationwide coverage, it will make use of the network of high-complexity military hospitals and intermediate ones. Carlos Presti. Although, after several promises, no one dares to predict the exact date.
