Region: Americas
Year: 1998
Court: Supreme Court of Justice [Corte Suprema de Justicia de la Nación Argentina]
Health Topics: Health care and health services, Health systems and financing
Human Rights: Freedom of association, Right to development, Right to privacy, Right to property, Right to social security, Right to work
Tags: Health insurance, Health regulation, Right to Property, Right to work, Social security
The Medical Center “Segurola S.A” (“Centro Médico Segurola S.A”) filed a guarantee of protection of individual constitutional rights (amparo protection) against the National State, under article 43 of Argentina’s National Constitution and law 16.986. The plaintiff considered law 24.754 to be unconstitutional because in article 1 it established that the companies that provide prepaid medical services should provide the same coverage in their healthcare plan that health insurance companies do. This article ignored the legal nature of prepaid medical services companies violating articles 14, 17, 18 and 19 of the National Constitution.
The Federal Contentious Administrative First Instance Court declared that it did not have competence to hear the case and sent the case to the Federal Social Security Court, which also held that it did not have competence to hear the case. The case went back to the Federal Contentious Administrative First Instance Court which declared that it did not have jurisdiction and sent the case to the Federal Contentious Administrative Court of Appeals. This court also didn’t solve the case and sent it to the Supreme Court of Justice.
The Supreme Court of Justice found that law 24.754 was sanctioned by an administrative organ, the Ministry of Health, and regulated administrative issues, therefore the case should be solved by the Federal Contentious Administrative Court.