BUENOS AIRES, Argentina: Since taking office in December 2023, Argentine President Javier Milei has implemented sweeping austerity measures that have gutted the nation's once-proud public health system.

Known for providing nearly universal free health care, Argentina now faces a public health crisis marked by drug shortages, layoffs, disease outbreaks, and overwhelmed hospitals.

Milei's government slashed the national health care budget by 48 percent in real terms and fired over 2,000 Health Ministry workers — 1,400 in just a few days in January. These drastic moves were part of Milei's broader plan to shrink the state and remake Argentina's debt-ridden economy. But the consequences have been swift and devastating for millions of Argentines.

Among the most dramatic cutbacks was the dismantling of the National Cancer Institute, which halted early detection programs for breast and cervical cancer. Funding was also frozen for immunization campaigns, severely disrupting vaccine access during Argentina's first measles outbreak in decades. The National Directorate for HIV, Hepatitis, and Tuberculosis lost 40 percent of its staff and 76 percent of its budget, delaying diagnosis and treatment across the country. Emergency contraception and abortion pill distribution have also stopped.

María Fernanda Boriotti, president of Argentina's Federation of Health Professionals, described the situation as a health care collapse: "HIV patients without treatment, cancer patients dying for lack of medication, hospitals without resources, health professionals pushed out of the system."

Prescription drug prices and private health insurance premiums have surged by 250 percent and 118 percent, respectively, according to official data. Retirees and unemployed citizens, stripped of state-supported plans, now face impossible medical costs. Susana Pecora, 71, said she stopped buying basic groceries to afford her husband's antipsychotic drugs after their plan was canceled.

Though Milei campaigned on promises to replace public health care with a U.S.-style insurance system eventually, he hasn't enacted that switch formally. Yet by stripping away services and raising out-of-pocket costs, critics say he's moving Argentina toward that very model. "If you lose your job or get sick, you may have to sell everything to survive," warned Macarena Sabin Paz of the Center for Legal and Social Studies.

Milei has aligned closely with U.S. President Donald Trump, pulling Argentina out of the World Health Organization and hosting U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Health Minister Mario Lugones even pledged to reform Argentina's health system in line with Kennedy's "Make America Healthy Again" movement.

The fallout has been grim. Argentina's once-lauded childhood immunization program has faltered. This April, the country reported its first measles death in 20 years. Renowned U.S. virologist Dr. Stanley Plotkin called it "an abandonment of public health."

Free public hospitals are struggling to cope. In Buenos Aires, demand for care rose by up to 30 percent in early 2025. At La Plata's Rodolfo Rossi Hospital, patients waited hours for basic medications, only to be turned away due to shortages. Pharmacists blame frozen budgets and administrative chaos. Silvana Mansilla, 43, left empty-handed after waiting half a day for thyroid medicine that has doubled in cost to US$22. "Where's the government?" she asked.

Doctors are overwhelmed. Hiring freezes have left them covering twice the patient load. At Garrahan Pediatric Hospital in Buenos Aires, 200 professionals have quit since Milei took office, many fleeing to private hospitals or abroad. A May strike by medical residents revealed 70-hour workweeks for $700 a month — wages that have lost half their value due to nearly 200 percent annual inflation.

Perhaps the most heartbreaking impact is seen among cancer patients. The government's abrupt closure of DADSE, a federal agency that supplied free cancer drugs, left over 1,500 patients without treatment. More than 60 have since died.

A federal judge ordered drug deliveries reinstated, but the government appealed, saying DADSE no longer exists and promising a new system, which has failed to deliver consistently.

Desperate patients have turned to underground Facebook groups, where those with leftover medications donate them to others. The groups are constantly shut down for violating platform rules, but always reappear.

For patients like Ariel Wagener, a pizza chef with leukemia, this black-market network became a lifeline. After losing access to his $21,000-per-month medication, he was hospitalized with kidney failure. His health improved only after receiving donated drugs from a deceased patient's family.

Others weren't so lucky. Alexis Almirón, 22, needed immediate cancer treatment in December. His request reached the government drug bank the day after Milei's inauguration. Months passed with no medicine. His cancer spread rapidly, and he died in March. His mother received a call the day after his funeral: the drugs had finally arrived.

"They didn't give him the chance to choose to live," she said.

As the health care system unravels, many fear Argentina is trading universal care for a cruel experiment in radical libertarianism — one where survival depends on charity, not policy.