The Council of Ministers has given this Monday its approval to the preliminary draft of Law on Equity, Universality and Cohesion, which aims, among other matters, to prevent the establishment of new health co-payments and that public direct management is the "preferred formula" In the National Health System (SNS).
This has been announced at a press conference after the Council of Ministers, the Minister of Health, Carolina Darias, who has qualified this "very important" standard because "improves and expands the rights" of citizens.
As Darias has told, the rule includes the derogation in an "explicit, express and nothing tacit" of Law 15/1997 of the Popular Government of José María Aznar, which allowed to resort to formulas for the privatization of public health. Your derogation was one of the bound requirements we can support the new text.
However, through the modification of the General Law of Health, the new standard continues to allow other privatization formulas, provided that it is "exceptional character" presenting a memory that "guarantees the need to go to them for sanitary and economic reasons "He explained the minister.
This same Monday, before knowing that the repeal of Law 15/1997 is contemplated, Pablo Fernández's state coPortavoz, has reaffirmed its disagreement with this rule because, in its view, it maintains "intact" government regulations of José María Aznar that allowed "privatization". For this reason, he has advanced that there will be a "battery of amendments" in the parliamentary process, in order to reverse privatizations in health services.
The approach of the confederal space was to present amendments, when between the preliminary draft equity law in the lower house, which stipulate the impossibility of applying new indirect management concessions and not renewing existing ones.
"It is the opportunity to close the door to the conception of health as a business, as a commodification," has taken the leader of the purple training, to insist that they want a "deep modification" of the regulations driven by Aznar. Consequently, he has said that they trust that the PSOE "between right", "rectify" and "accept" those amendments, since now they are not in accordance with the approach collected by the Health Holder.
In response, Darias has pointed out that "this is a law of all over government", although not specifically clarifying if it has finally been counted with the approval of its partners. "This is a law of all the government of which we are very satisfied, it has been the result of the contribution of the ministries that make up the Government. It complies with the programmatic agreement: to advance with the consolidation of citizens' rights and in public management Because it puts direct management as a predilect, "he defended.
The minister has insisted on his position and has censored the "red lines" of us. We can. "Talking about red lines when expanding new rights and prevents from returning times it is complicated. It is committed to direct management of public health services, which seems very important to me," she claimed.
With this preliminary draft, in addition to prioritizing public direct management in the SNS, the possibility of establishing new co-payments is restricted. The Government had already eliminated the pharmaceutical co-payment for preceptors of the minimum vital income, pensioners with low income, minor with disabilities and people with rent by child in charge. Now, the new standard also expands exemptions from orthoprothetic copay for all these groups.
The new standard also modifies Law 16/2012, driven by the popular Ana Mato, which introduced the co-payments and also divided into three the portfolio of common services, establishing what services were copied and which are not.
"Now we unify them so that new health co-payments can not be introduced. With this law, it is guaranteed that in a homogeneous way throughout the national territory, the common portfolio is recovered," said Darias.
On the other hand, it is collected that people born in Spain and residents abroad have public health coverage when they return to our country temporarily, as well as the "homogeneous" application throughout the national territory of the recovery of universality approved in 2018.
Various entities and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) had been denouncing since 2018 that, despite the Royal Decree of the Government to recover the universality of health care to all non-residents, there were still cases of exclusion in some autonomous communities. Darias has recognized that "there is no homogeneous application" throughout the national territory, so this law wants to end those exclusions.
Likewise, the Standard formally incorporates patients in the Advisory Committee of the National Health System to "effective social participation" and that these entities can exercise "institutional participation". "It seems very important to active listening and giving entry into patient organizations," he said.
Specialized attention is also extended in patients with functional deficit, since so far only the treatments that "improved the lives of the people" were also extended. This situation caused to leave some groups, such as the patients of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ELA), since its rehabilitation did not allow them to advance in their disease but "maintain a minimum quality of life".
Finally, the regulatory development of the Salary Warranty Fund and the possibility that the health technologies assessment network can be organized in a consortium in order to participate in European projects.
"We are facing an initiative of great political draft that affects and strengthens the guiding principles of the SNS. It means a big step to continue improving the lives of people, which is the reason for being of this government," the minister has riveted.
Likewise, in another order of issues, the Council of Ministers has approved the distribution of 220 million euros to the autonomous communities for digitization, through "the improvement in the efficiency in pharmaceutical spending", the renovation of equipment, the " Interoperable clinical stories "and the digitalization of intensive care units (UCI).
Date Of Update: 08 November 2021, 11:56
