The better known connotation for cartel is related to drug and arms organizations. But there is an economic definition, too.
In the English version, Wikipedia defines cartel as “a group of apparently independent producers whose goal is to increase their collective profits by means of price fixing, limiting supply, or other restrictive practices. Cartels typically control selling prices, but some are organized to control the prices of purchased inputs.
Dictionary focuses on the economic definition when it defines the term: “An international syndicate, combine, or trust formed especially to regulate prices and output in some field of business, or a coalition of political or special-interest groups having a common cause, as to encourage the passage of a certain law.
But when Diario Libre headlined its front page last week that the medics (Dominican Medical Guild) was going heads on against the health providers (ARS) and called these two cartels, the medics took exception and said the newspaper had gone too wrong.
Most people looked up the definition in Wikipedia in Spanish where the later is defined only as an organization of criminal groups, pointing to drug cartels. The Spanish Language Academy (RAE) instead gives two definitions, the second one seemingly ignored. The first spoke of the illicit organization with ties to drug or arms trafficking, but a second said it was an agreement among similar companies to avoid competition among these and regulate production, sales and prices in a determined field.
In an editorial on Monday, 23 July 2018, Adriano Miguel Tejada, executive editor of the newspaper highlighted that the Dominican Medical Guild (CMD) that protested the use of the word “cartel” “does not know how to read when their interests are affected.” He stressed that the 18 July 2018 cartel clearly made the point that they were not referring to individual physicians, but rather to the professional medical societies and the clinics that had created a cartel to confront the highly profitable ARS. He observed that in the effort both organizations, ARS and clinics, were disregarding the interests of the patients.
The editorialist said that Diario Libre has been one of the most aggressive critics of the ARS, because the later is a struggle for economic benefits fought by illicit means.
Tejada concludes that the medics should forget the threats to journalists –“hope they do not need a doctor”, and says that as he ages seeing them is unavoidable.
The physicians themselves and patients are the big losers. On the issue, Joel Rodriguez, president of the Dominican Association of Users of Social Security (Asodomuss) says that the impasse between the health providers (ARS and the private clinics (Andeclip) needs to be resolved by amending the Social Security Law 87-01 that dates back to 2001.
Read more in Spanish:
Diario Libre
23 July 2018
