Health plan for 30,000 education employees suspended due to debt of R$30 million in AM

The health plan for Seduc-AM employees was suspended due to non-payment of R$30.3 million by the government. The interruption affects 30 thousand servers.

Hapvida notified Seduc-AM on October 23rd charging overdue installments. The company had already warned about delays on 3 other occasions.

Sinteam informed that it will charge Seduc-AM this Thursday (12) regarding the 6th suspension of the plan. The government did not comment on the delays.

The health plan for employees of the State Department of Education and Sports of Amazonas (Seduc-AM) was suspended due to lack of payment from the state government, according to the Union of Education Workers of the State of Amazonas (Sinteam). Also according to Sinteam, this is the sixth suspension since 2019.

In a document sent to Seduc on October 23, to which Rede Amazônica had access, Hapvida notified the secretariat due to a debt of R$30.3 million, referring to five monthly installments, and established a deadline of five working days for the settlement of outstanding amounts.

The company stated that the installments for June, July and August had their payment dates renegotiated, but the deadlines had not been met by the date the document was signed.

According to the notification sent to Seduc-AM, the amounts not paid until October 23rd were:

June: R$7.48 million, with payment renegotiated for September 14th;

July: R$7.57 million, with payment renegotiated for October 7th;

August: R$7.62 million, with payment renegotiated for October 14th;

September: R$7.66 million, with no new payment date negotiated;

The sum of the four monthly payments due by October 23rd was R$30,340,322.85.

Hapvida also mentioned an outstanding fifth installment, of R$7.71 million, due on October 30th. As the date had not yet arrived when the notification was sent, this amount was not part of the overdue debt of R$30.3 million.

Also considering this monthly fee, the total of the five installments listed in the document reaches R$38 million.

In the notification, Hapvida stated that it had already alerted Seduc about the delays on three other occasions: in February, March and July of this year. The company also said that providing services without payment compromises the financial balance of the contract.

In a statement, Sinteam stated that this is the sixth time that the health plan for Seduc workers has been suspended since 2019. According to the entity, the interruption affects around 30 thousand employees.

The union reported that it had already formally charged Seduc after becoming aware of the debt and that it intends to contact the secretariat again this Thursday (12).

Sinteam also declared that Seduc workers should not be harmed by late payments:

"Workers cannot afford the government's mismanagement and lack of commitment. There are 50 days left until the end of this management. Until then, we will not accept that the health of the category is treated with this neglect," says the statement.

g1 contacted Seduc-AM to question the delays in payments and the suspension of the health plan, but did not receive a response until the last update of this article.