Although the message from the Minister of Finance and Public Administration Cristóbal Montoro, Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría and the Spanish government in general is to not cast direct blame for the fact that the country surpassed their 6% debt/GDP ratio goal by 2.51 points, that does not mean that those who have been most responsible for this budget imbalance can avoid the bulk of remedial cutbacks and adjustments.
Especially when the blame on the policies of the former government came up short, because the Partido Popular leaders have a majority in the Spanish regional governments that were responsible for the excess spending. The regional governments surpassed their 1.3% debt/GDP goal by 1.64 percentage points.
Goal: To reign in public accounts
In consequence, and faced with an urgent need to apply additional adjustments that reduce the bulk of public accounts not only through cutting spending but also through increasing revenues, the Spanish government?s economic team has several options on the table: healthcare copays and the céntimo sanitario, a tax that was implemented in 2002 and 2006 and questioned by the EU because of its dubious legality. These strategies will ultimately allow Spain to slowly put an end to the ?everything is free? culture and open eyes to the real costs of benefits that citizens receive.
So the national government would increase discipline within regional governments by cleaning up their accounts. The copayment tax such as it is will be applied day after next to pharmaceutical benefits. But Catalonia will apply a tariff of one euro per prescription with a 62 euro annual cap, although this fee would be waved for persons with low-income and pensioned individuals and will also not apply in cases where drugs cost less than 1.62 euros per prescription.
