The Spanish national and regional governments approved yesterday a draft of an agreement for revised Healthcare and Social Security benefits. According to the Minister of Health Ana Mato, "[the plan] should guarantee Spaniards access to the same benefits." But these benefits will not come at the same price.
Starting in May, Catalonia will apply a one-euro tariff on drug prescriptions. The Ministry of Health is not opposing the measure, which differs from the previous administration's decision to reject it as "unconstitutional." The only other thing Ana Mato said yesterday is that "each regional government is adopting measures that they see fit."
Besides Catalonia, ten other regions have already applied the céntimo sanitario, a tax on fuels that provides revenue for healthcare services, while Galicia and Baleares are charging a fee for healthcare card renewals. These new charges could very well become an additional source of revenue for the struggling regional government coffers, because the Interterritorial Council of the National Healthcare System (CISNS following the Spanish abbreviation) adopted yesterday a new, universal design for healthcare cards , which citizens will ultimately need to acquire.
Charging fees for new cards is a possible measure, but Ana Mato will not require that regional governments employ it.
The Healthcare system predicts that four million cards will be renewed this year. The cards will be compatible across all regional healthcare systems and utilize a personalized number or code that allows citizens to receive service from any location in Spain. If governments apply a ten-euro fee for card renewals as Baleares plans to do, then they could be set to earn 470 million euros from this plan throughout the course of this year. Using fees or direct copays to finance a national healthcare system that is in debt by more than 15 billion euros to its providers was left out of the CISNS meeting.
"The measure has been approached from all points of view and ideological perspectives for a long time, and it will be proposed or not during upcoming talks," Monto assured to elEconomista. She also said that "the plans for financing and sustainability will be decided on among everyone in the heart of the Interterritorial Council."
Along these same lines, the advisor of Castilla-La Mancha said that to apply a fee on medical prescriptions "pertains to Catalonia's realm of decision-making." For José Ignacio Echániz, who was elected spokesperson of the 14 regional governments by the PP members within the CISNS, there will be "two levels of reform" in the new Spanish healthcare plan. One part will correspond to the national government and another to regional governments.
