Governor assures she will seek funding for ASES

PDP delegation in the Senate held a press conference where they claim the governor lied about the agency’s situation.

By The Star Staff

Governor Jenniffer Aidyn González Colón stated on Monday that she will await confirmation from Justice Secretary Lourdes Lynnette Gómez Torres to evaluate a possible referral regarding the multi-million dollar deficit of the Health Insurance Administration (ASES), which was not reported during the transition hearings.

González Colón explained that the $109 million deficit arose because the previous administration’s actuary failed to consider four new benefits included in the health card. “There is a meeting today with the Speaker of the House and the Director of Management and Budget to inform them of these changes. We will work with the Fiscal Oversight Board,” she stated.

She insisted that they will seek the necessary funds to address the deficit and meet their budget commitments. “We are going to get the money and we are going to deliver. We are going to have a balanced budget, much to the chagrin of the Popular Party delegation that wants Puerto Rico to default,” the governor stated.

Earlier, the Popular Democratic Party (PDP) delegation in the Senate held a press conference where they claim the governor lied about the agency’s situation. “Last Thursday, May 29, the governor appeared before the Legislative Assembly to deliver her State of the State Address and claimed that she was freeing Puerto Rico from the dependence of the Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico(FOMB) and that she had managed to maintain a balanced budget. The governor highlighted thirteen (13) proposals or initiatives that may not materialize today because the budget is not balanced. $109 million is missing from ASES,” said spokesperson Luis Javier Hernández.

Alternate minority leader Marially González Huertas recalled that González promised subsidies for care centers for seniors, shelters for minors, recruitment of social workers, recruitment of 800 police cadets, and $387 million for municipalities. The bad news is that these promises are subject to a balanced budget. Why do we say this? Because the day before, on May 28, the Oversight Board informed the government, in a letter addressed to the Office of Management and Budget, that after a review of the amendment they carried out to the Vital Plan Contract for the 2025-2026 fiscal year, a 21.06% increase in health insurance rates was proposed. That represents a mismatch of approximately $109 million.

Senator Josian Santiago Rivera stated that “there is no way Governor Jenniffer González dares to blame Pedro Pierluisi’s previous administration for lying to her when her own transition team had acknowledged the deficit that needed to be addressed. Now, in order to excuse her lack of sincerity to the government of Puerto Rico, the governor now says she will refer authorities to the director of ASES during the Pedro Pierluisi administration, Roxanna Rosario Serrano. Last Saturday, in an interview with the press, Rosario Serrano explained that she left the agency on December 31. “At that time, the agency was functioning and operating with the budget known as 2024-2025. All of the agency’s budgets are always worked on with the approval and endorsement of the Fiscal Control Board. In other words, when I left the agency, the budget that was operating was a balanced budget, as I reported at the transition hearings,” the former director of ASES stated.