The Social Security universal health care system (Caja), faced with higher costs and unfavorable demographics, is getting tough with employers who fall behind in paying into the benefit fund.

In what Caja financial manager Gustavo Picado termed “unprecedented in the life of the institution,” the institution filed a court suit against an Upala man who is charged with withholding benefits from an employee in June and July.

The employer was supposed to appear at a hearing Dec. 5 but, when he failed to appear, the court filed for preventive detention. Usually, preventive detention is filed in criminal cases where the defendant may flee or may threaten witnesses to silence.

In this case, however, obviously the Caja and prosecutors suspect the employer of simply stonewalling the court. It appears that the Caja wishes to show employers that it s serious about getting these contributions.

The benefits go into a fund for old age, disability and death benefits as well as the ongoing cradle-to-grave health insurance. Francisco Jaen, in charge of the northern zone’s Caja operation, told La Nacion that the system does act to recover late contributions but this is the first equivalent of a criminal case.

Meanwhile, the national newspaper La Nacion reported that the Caja had shelled out somewhat over a billion colones to close family members of deceased workers to help them defray funeral expenses.

The last payment, given out twice yearly, was in July, 531 million paid to 5,889 persons. If the deceased was a directly insured person, his family receives 95,000 colones, or 63,000 paid to widow or widower for interment of the loved one.

Caja benefits officer Gerardo Arias explained to La Nacion that the direct beneficiary is a normally insured person with the employer paying a portion. However, Arias went on, there are also voluntary beneficiaries who are self-employed or have a collective bargaining agreement through their job.

The Caja plight is due to being pinched between rising health care costs (plus bureaucratic waste) and an aging population that has ceased paying in contributions doe to retirement and whose health shows the wearing of age.

During the past year, the Caja has instituted numerous austerity measures and repeated efforts to become more efficient, even to the point of sending out officials from its main office to take over troubled hospitals and clinics to cure their administrative defects.

Source: Fijatevos.com