The disbursement made by the State for each citizen in the National Health System has grown more than twice as much as Muface’s premium has risen in the last five years. Specifically, while per capita spending on public health has increased by 41%, from 1,228 euros in 2018 to 1,736 euros in 2023, mutual insurance premiums have increased by 16%, from 885 to 1,030 euros.
It is the data on which senior officials (level A1) rely to defend that the system that covers 1.5 million public employees is not only sustainable, but that there are no economic arguments to dismantle it because the current difference of more 700 euros in per capita spending means a saving for the State of more than 1,000 million euros annually.
This was stated yesterday by the president of the Spanish Federation of Associations of the Higher Bodies of the State Civil Administration (Fedeca), Ana Ercoreca, who warned that “there are no economic or legal arguments” to liquidate the mutualism model, as as the Ministry of Health led by Mónica García has defended.
In a press conference in which the State lawyer and former Ciudadanos politician, Edmundo Bal, the State auditor and auditor, Mario Garcés (currently in the PP) and the president of the Association of State Treasury Inspectors, Ana participated de la Herrán, Fedeca asked to enter into open negotiations between the Ministry of Public Service and the CCOO, UGT and CSIF unions regarding the renewal of the Muface agreement, which the Government is trying to move forward with a new tender.
Precisely, the Minister of Public Service, Óscar López, wanted to send this Monday “a message of tranquility” to the mutualists to whom he guaranteed that their health care will be “covered.” And, despite the controversial report leaked at the end of last month by the Ministry of Health, in which it supported the end of Muface, the Government’s position has always been to try to convince insurers to continue providing services and activate If necessary, a nine-month extension until a new contract is closed.
That is the scenario in which Muface technicians are working, who are currently preparing a report based on the information collected from the insurance sector in a preliminary market consultation that ended on December 4 and was attended by the three companies that currently provide the service: Adeslas, Asisa and DKV. The three defend that to renew the contract the premium should rise by 40%, far from the Government’s initial offer of 17%.
All in all, Moncloa’s roadmap involves designing a new offer that is more attractive for insurers and that will be approved by a Council of Ministers before the end of the year so that the time for the new public tender begins to count. to which those or other interested companies in the sector could apply.
Patient complaints
In any case, uncertainty is growing among officials despite the message of tranquility that they try to send from the socialist flank of the Government. Given the lack of renewal of the contract, the companies have told them that they are going to stop providing them with health care and for weeks they have even been canceling medical appointments, tests of all specialties and surgeries of all kinds.
This is what CSIF reported yesterday before the Ombudsman, to whom it handed “hundreds of complaints from mutual members”going so far as to denounce in some cases that the clinics “are asking officials to pay for the treatments themselves if they want to be treated.”
They report situations of all kinds, from a mother with a baby less than a year old pending a consultation with a pediatric neurologist to a person with prostate cancer waiting for authorization to begin treatment.
This union has called a demonstration in defense of Muface on December 14. Before, on Wednesday the 11th, CCOO and UGT will take to the streets.