Capítulo IV. Beneficios

The social security regime comprises protection and benefits in the event that the following risks of a social character occur:

a). Occupational accidents and occupational diseases;

b). Maternity;

c). General diseases;

d). Invalidity;

e). Orphanhood;

f). Widowhood;

g). Old age;

h). Death (burial expenses); and

i). Those others that the regulations determine.

The protection relating to occupational accidents and occupational diseases comprises the following benefits for the insured person:

a). In the event of temporary incapacity: medical, surgical, therapeutic and hospital services; orthopedic appliances, and a cash compensation proportional to his income;

b). In the event of permanent incapacity, partial or total, the annuities that actuarial estimates determine.

Until permanent incapacity is declared, the corresponding temporary incapacity benefits must be given; and,

c). In the event of death, the successors who depended economically on the deceased at the moment of his death, especially his wife and minor children, must receive the pensions that actuarial estimates determine, in addition to a sum destined to burial expenses.

The protection relating to maternity comprises the following benefits for the insured woman:

a). medical, surgical, therapeutic and hospital services, during pregnancy, childbirth and the postnatal period, in accordance with what the regulation determines.

These benefits may be granted to the wife of the insured person who depends economically on him;

b). Cash compensation during the periods immediately before and after childbirth, fixed proportionally to the income of the insured woman;

c). Assistance for lactation, in kind or in cash; and,

d). Whenever the maternity risk becomes a common illness or causes death, the benefits indicated in article 31 must be given, insofar as they are applicable.

The protection relating to general diseases comprises the following benefits for the insured person:

a). Medical, surgical, therapeutic and hospital services, during the period and in the form indicated by the regulation.

These benefits may be extended to the family members of the insured person who depend economically on him, principally to his wife and minor children;

b). Cash compensation proportional to the income of the insured person, during the same period; and,

c). A sum destined to burial expenses.

The protection relating to invalidity, orphanhood, widowhood and old age consists of pensions for the insured persons, which they must receive in accordance with the requirements and to the extent that result from the actuarial estimates made for that purpose.

The regulations must determine, in accordance with the nature of the various classes of benefits, what points must be proved and what conditions must be fulfilled for the purpose that the concubine and the children born outside marriage receive those benefits.

The said regulations must encourage the organization of the family on the legal basis of marriage and determine the cases in which, for the purposes of this law and by reason of equity, the union between persons with legal capacity to marry must be equated, because of its stability and singularity, to civil marriage.

The cash benefits granted to insured persons may not be assigned, offset or encumbered, nor are they subject to attachment, except as to one half for obligations to pay maintenance.

The right to claim the granting of a pension prescribes in one year, and the right to collect the pensions or compensation granted prescribes in six months.

It is the obligation of all insured persons who are receiving benefits from the Institute, in cash, in kind or in services, to submit to the examinations, treatments and rules that it issues for the improvement and care of their health.

The Institute enjoys a broad freedom of action, in harmony with the provisions of article 27, to decide:

a). The order and time at which it must assume, totally or partially, each of the different risks, in accordance with the possibilities that exist to grant the corresponding benefits; and,

b). The fixing of the greater or lesser extent that in each case it is proper to give to the respective benefits or to the various classes of these, in accordance with the standard of living, needs, economic possibilities and other characteristics of the different groups of the population.

The regulations must determine the methods, requirements, definitions and, in general, all the other details and rules that are necessary to apply technically the principles contained in this chapter.