What Chile’s Constituent Assembly decided on health, pensions, and social rights

A crucial night of voting took place on Tuesday in Chile’s Constituent Assembly, as the country’s constitutional guarantees on issues including healthcare, pensions, education, housing, and labor rights were put up for debate. 

This comes amid a fall in popularity of the assembly, with more Chileans now leaning towards rejecting the new text in the upcoming exit referendum. This is a trend that delegates are hoping to reverse with the introduction of highly anticipated social rights into the final draft – arguably the central demand of the protests that have upended the country since 2019, which led to the assembly’s creation.

Among the most notable decisions of the day was the creation of a “universal, public, and integrated” healthcare system, guided by “equality” and “solidarity,” with primary care at its core. 

The assembly ruled that all Chileans have the right to “physical and mental health,” which will have to be guaranteed by the state and funded through general taxation, while additional mandatory contributions from employers and employees could also be established by law. 

This follows a pattern that has been established since the start of the Constitutional Assembly, according to which the state is granted increased powers to intervene in economic and social affairs, with the goal of redressing inequality and righting some of Chile’s historical wrongs. 

However, the most radical...