Milei has said he will take his chainsaw before ministers in charge of the environment, education, and women’s rights, among others. three, and cut the funding for research in science. The central bank of Argentina will also disappear in the event that Milei completes his commitment for him to “dollarize” Argentina’s economy by deciding to eliminate Argentina’s peso to be replaced with U.S. currency.
Milei claims to bring about a major shift to the trajectory of Argentina’s present. In addition, his attack on education and science are part of an alarming anti-intellectual right-wing populism which threatens liberal democracies around the world.
As an expert on the background of public health care in Argentina, I am of the opinion that Milei may face a lot of resistance if he attempts to undermine the long-standing consensus regarding the necessity for the government to provide universal health coverage as well as various social programs.
The political system is shocked
A former professor of economics, Milei is a relative newcomer to the political scene with only an epoch in congress of the nation. Like other right-wing populists, Milei portrays himself as an outsider in the political arena.
When it comes to public spending, Milei styles himself as an “anarchocapitalist.” His plans include eliminating both the Ministry of Health and Conicet, the agency that funds most academic research in Argentina, and folding them into a new Ministry of Human Capital, with a fraction of their current budget and personnel.
Milei’s rhetoric taps into the vast frustration in Argentinians about the current administration led by Alberto Fernandez, a member of the Peronist party that has been in the power for the last three years.
Since his election in the year 2019, Fernandez has ruled over the soaring the rate of inflation, rising poverty and allegations of corruption in the public sector..
The handling of the COVID-19 pandemic led to an initial increase in the public’s support to Fernandez. However, by the middle of 2021, the public’s displeasure at the state was beginning to boil over partly due to claims of a preferential treatment in the COVID-19 vaccines given to Peronist officials and their close friends and families.
In the meantime, for Milei, the pandemic was able to be a factor in his ascendance to fame in politics. Fighting the fires of discontent from the public and a plethora of appearances on television and social media to denounce an “political caste” for imposing what he considered to be unnecessary and damaging restrictions on the pandemic. The acclaim he has earned has increased dramatically in the eyes of young people living in Argentina who are accustom to “anti-progressive” messaging online and depleted by the current political corruption and the economic crisis. Milei is much more popular in the male-dominated population due to the fact that women are extremely concerned by his plans to rescind the country’s law that allows abortions to be legalized.
Health as a right of the social
It appears that Milei has been able to tap into the need for radical political changes.
However, there are reasons to be skeptical that efforts to reduce the role of the government in the field of health would face strong opposition in the context of the longer-term trends of the health sector in Argentina in general and throughout the Latin America region.
There is a widespread acceptance of the importance of the government in ensuring and defending the right to health care as well as other “social rights” like education and gender equality.
In my new book, ” In Pursuit of Health Equity,” the global “social medicine” movement has been able to be a significant factor in the creation of the welfare state in a number of Latin American countries. The movement is led by progressive doctors, left-leaning academics, and health advocates in social medicine, who believe health is integrally tied to socioeconomic factors and are seeking to create solid health systems that are part of the creation of a solid social security net. Social medicine advocates regard health as a human right instead of an item to be purchased.
The country of Argentina, Juan Domingo Peron was the creator of the popular Peronist movement which Milei is now attempting to remove from power, was a believer in social medicine. In order to make the population of Argentina happier and productive during the 1940s, Peron extended the role of government in health care, while also pushing for measures to improve conditions for workers food and housing.
