So far, there are four out of the 13 presidential candidates in Costa Rica that are the favorites to come out as winners in the elections today, and two of them, Antonio Alvarez Desanti from the National Liberation Party (PLN) and Rodolfo Piza from the Social Christian Unity Party (PUSC) are including private education and health services among the activities that would be taxed with the IVA (value-added tax).

Both candidates have established their position of supporting the implementation of the IVA tax, Alvarez (PLN) considers necessary to bring it from 13% to 15%, and his government plan includes taxes for private education and private health services that would range between 2%-4% .

On the other hand, Piza proposes the implementation of the IVA but maintaining the current percentage of 13% , he also includes private education and health taxes but for just 2%.

These are the only two candidates including private health services and education in their tax plan; the proposal from both has received many criticisms, since the rest of the running candidates consider that the price paid for these services is already high as it is.

Many Costa Ricans opt for private health services to avoid having to wait to receive attention in the Social Security Service which has a long waiting list; they also opt for private education looking for better quality.

There are too many things at stake in this electoral process; Costa Rica closed 2017 with a fiscal deficit of 6.2%, a number that has the country at the verge of a fiscal crisis.