Every week multiple crashes happen on the provincial and national routes of Mendoza. While seeking to increase the value to be paid in the fines for driving under the influence alcoholin Health they closely follow a project that aims to make drunk drivers pay for their stay in hospitals public, if after an accident they are referred to this type of hospital.
As MDZ learned, public hospitals can face a cost close to 15 million pesos when treating a drunk driver who crashed and had a serious accident in said facility. In the Senate, the measure already has half a sanction and the Minister of Health, Rodolfo Monterospoke with MDZ to give details about it.
“It is a calculation that was made when we presented the package of laws in the Legislature, it is a law that aims to ensure that children do not drink when driving. The objective of the law is that if one has social work, the cost of care in it hospital public pays for social work. If one does not have social work and he has to be treated in the hospital, he will be treated under the same conditions and he will recover his health. But the project says that if the accident is the result of a drunk driver, the hospital can claim the costs of care from that person. It is a law that aims to put on the table the issue of why Mendoza society with its taxes has to bear the costs of someone who deliberately commits a criminal act,” Montero commented to MDZ and MDZ Radio.
The calculation of the 15 million pesos, As Montero explained, they arise after a sum was made of the average hospitalization days of a person who had a accident moderate or severe and the resources consumed by that person who ends up in the hospital after crashing. “It was done with a nomeclador value for the month of February and the calculation showed about 15 million pesos,” highlighted the head of the health portfolio of Mendoza.
At the same time, it was known that: a day of hospitalization costs $200,000, the ambulance transfer is $13,000, a common day of hospitalization costs $70,000, and some common surgeries when there is brain trauma cost about 8 million pesos.
The government official Cornel He stressed that: “The objective is not fundraising, it is a small measure to discourage people who drink alcohol from getting behind the wheel.” Currently, the mechanisms used in Mendoza are through two forms: with centralized and decentralized hospitals. The decentralized ones charge directly and the centralized ones use mechanisms of the Superintendency of Health Services, the person is attended to and it is seen what coverage they have, the invoice is made to that social work. In the decentralized ones they directly initiated legal actions to the social work.
“What we did is centralize the billing of the entire public system, with a new centralized nomenclature. There we formed a public entity to bill prepaid for its affiliates. The public system will increase its collection and cross-subsidy will be avoided “Montero commented.
In the event that a person does not have social security, the State forces him to pay the drunk driver “as with any other debt that one contracts and does not pay. There is a judicial vehicle to file a claim for the debt, the important thing is the spirit of the norm, we try to raise awareness to save lives and to ensure that those who drink do not drive. The very high cost will not only be the fine, but also the treatment to be paid at health providers.
Victims of fatal accidents in Mendoza
Although it is not detailed in terms of traffic accidents with the influence of alcohol at the wheel, it was confirmed during the last hours that there are already 84 victims who died after a road accident. At this point, among the most notable cases of serious accidents with drunk drivers, the South Access case stands out in which two police officers died at the hands of a drunk man.
On Monday, without the influence of alcohol, a 14-year-old boy died aboard a Hilux in Maipú and on Sunday two people who were on a motorcycle died and hit a bus in Las Heras. These two cases updated the black figure that Mendoza has in 2024 in terms of fatalities in traffic accidents.
