Public-health provision deteriorates both because budgets are cut and because demand rises as some middle-class Latin Americans can no longer afford private health insurance.
But many customers have said they were unaware of such clauses, and that the sudden imposition of price rises in the middle of a supposedly fixed-price deal was unfair.
If the U.S. economy continues to slow into the first quarter of 2013, and if Europe remains a basket case next year, then oil demand will be stable and price rises will largely depend on Asian demand and the usual Middle Eastern drama pitting Tel Aviv against Tehran.