Medical insurance in Chile will cover costs for sex violence victims
Chile's medical insurance now covers health costs of victims of sexual aggression.
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Chilean feminists protest the Augosto Pinochet regime at the Museum of Memory and Human Rights. (Kena Lorenzini)
Medical insurance in Chile will also cover the medical costs for victims of sexual aggression within the list of problems and diseases covered in insurance in the explicit health guarantees, according to the Chilean Ministry of Women and Gender Equity.
"On the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women #25N [November 25] we announce together with @ministeriosalud [the Chilean Health Ministry] the incorporation of comprehensive health care for victims of severe sexual aggression under the GES [the explicit health guarantees]," the gender equity ministry tweeted on Friday.
En el Día Internacional de la Eliminación de la Violencia contra las Mujeres #25N anunciamos junto al @ministeriosalud la incorporación de la atención integral de salud para víctimas de agresiones sexuales agudas en el GES ✅#SíEsMiProblema pic.twitter.com/n0Ki7aMZih
— Ministerio de la Mujer y la Equidad de Género (@MinMujeryEG) November 25, 2022
87 other pathologies and problems are also covered by Chilean medical insurance.
Over the past 7 years, sexual aggression and violence have increased in the country. Although the measure does not tackle the root cause of GBV, the measure nonetheless helps authorities take quick steps to protect the physical health of victims post-assault, and will also assist in the restoration of morale, according to Orellana Guarello, the ministry's minister.
Socialist Chile reborn
The people of Chile have previously voted to change the constitution drawn up in 1980 under US-backed dictator Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship. However, opinion polls suggest that the new constitution would be rejected despite countless improvements from the current one.
Pinochet was essentially propped up as a means of toppling socialist president Salvador Allende, the country's first socialist president voted into office on September 4, 1970, and sworn in two months later. It is no coincidence that the referendum on the vote is taking place on September 4, 52 years after Allende was voted into power, as it could symbolize a sort of "resurrection" of a socialist Chile.
The Chilean public is largely against the country's neoliberal economic system, and it is expected that the clauses tackling this issue will be prioritized by the government in any future text if this one were to fail.
Read next: The Original 9/11: How the CIA Orchestrated Chile's Violent Coup
The current constitution was backed by the United States. Washington pushed for the regime change in Chile due to the interests of multinational corporations who sought to make massive profits off the back of the Chilean people.
The fresh constitution was written by a constitutional convention comprised of 154 members split equally between men and women with 17 places dedicated to Indigenous people.
In the new constitution, progressive ideas will be taken into the matter like gender equity, ethnic equality, environmental protection, and abortion.
