Argentina President Limits Free Hospital Care for Foreigners

Argentina’s federal government has announced that it will no longer fund hospital treatment for non-resident foreigners, as President Javier Milei’s administration pushes ahead with its cost-cutting agenda.

The measure, announced on Tuesday, follows an order issued by Milei’s government last year as part of efforts to reduce public spending.

However, the government said the policy would not affect life-saving emergency treatment.

A presidential spokesperson said emergency care “must not be delayed”, while the Ministry of Health clarified that conditions including cardiac arrest, heart attacks, strokes, severe trauma, massive haemorrhages, extensive burns, and obstetric, paediatric and neonatal emergencies would continue to be treated free of charge.

The impact of the policy could also be limited by Argentina’s healthcare structure, with most public health services administered by individual provinces. Only certain regional hospitals are directly managed by the federal government.

Milei, a self-described “anarcho-capitalist” and ally of US President Donald Trump, has repeatedly argued that Argentina’s financially strained government should not continue providing free public services, including healthcare, to foreigners who do not contribute through taxes.

His spokesperson said the measure was aimed primarily at tackling what the government describes as “medical tourism” — people who travel to Argentina specifically to receive treatment at public hospitals before returning to their home countries.

The government, however, did not provide figures showing the scale of medical tourism or how much it costs the public health system.

Critics of Milei’s libertarian administration have accused the government of using the policy as a justification for reducing funding to Argentina’s already pressured public healthcare system.

Nicolas Kreplak, health minister of Buenos Aires province, Argentina’s most populous province and one governed by the Peronist opposition, disputed the government’s argument.

Kreplak said non-resident foreigners accounted for just 0.4 per cent of emergency room visits and 0.5 per cent of hospitalisations.

“The health care system is overburdened due to a lack of resources, not because of foreigners,” he said on Tuesday.