Private healthcare in Cantabria is in good health, according to the latest report published in May by the Federation of Associations for the Defense of Public Healthcare (FASDP) on healthcare privatization in the autonomies. Precisely, one of the most relevant conclusions for FASDP are the movements regarding greater privatization of communities such as Cantabria, which has climbed six positions in the national ranking, going from the group of autonomies with the lowest degree of privatization to an intermediate group.
The degree of privatization of the Cantabrian health system already exceeds that of Galicia, the Basque Country, Castilla-La Mancha, Extremadura and Navarra, according to the data collected by the federation of the Ministry of Health, INE, IDIS (Institute for the Development and Integration of the Health) and Health Barometer. In Spain there are three degrees of privatization by autonomies: with a higher degree of privatization are Madrid, the Balearic Islands, Catalonia and Andalusia; with an intermediate degree of privatization, Aragon, Valencia, Asturias, the Canary Islands, Murcia, Castilla y León, Cantabria, Galicia and the Basque Country, in this order; and with a lower degree of privatization, Castilla-La Mancha, Extremadura and Navarra.
Although the rise of private healthcare is widespread throughout the country, the rise in Cantabria has coincided with the arrival of the PP to autonomous power in 2023. One of the causes attributed to this rise is the alarmism that is being generated in the population for issues such as surgical, consultation and diagnostic test waiting lists, with a continuous public exchange of contradictory assessments between political parties. The parties do not even agree on the census of waiting patients, which has led the Patient Ombudsman to put the matter in the hands of the Prosecutor’s Office for investigation.
Cantabria has seen these lists oversized since the PSOE administration, but they still have high percentages. The PP Government has already announced 65 million in investment to reduce waiting lists, largely allocated to private medicine.
Fear and deterioration of the public
Experts consider that this has prompted numerous Cantabrians to pay for consultations and take out private insurance due to the possibility of seeing health care delayed, a dynamic that is linked to the ‘Health Business’ defended by the current Minister of Health, César Pascual (PP). , and which earned him criticism from the political opposition, especially socialists. “Either you get in line, or you co-pay” was the expression used by Pascual.
“The cuts and deterioration of Public Health have been and continue to be the main incentive for the growth of the private sector, and that is why it is one of the strategies used to favor privatization” is one of the conclusions of the Foundation.
For his part, the general secretary of the PSC-PSOE, Pablo Zuloaga, has recently denounced that the increase in private insurance is the greatest danger that public health in Cantabria now faces.
Cantabria is “the autonomous community where private insurance in the field of family health is growing the most”, which, in Zuloaga’s opinion, is a “serious and dangerous” fact because “it shows that the citizens of Cantabria are beginning to distrust of a Government that manages public health thinking that patients are clients.”
The cuts and deterioration of Public Health have been and continue to be the main incentive for the growth of the private sector, and that is why it is one of the strategies used to favor privatization
Among the data obtained by FASDP is the health expenditure allocated to private insurance: 109 euros per year per Cantabrian (the Spanish regional average is 178 euros).
In addition, we must take into account the annual average expenditure of 499 euros by each Cantabrian on private consultations, especially in dentistry, compared to the 504 euros on the national average.
Health expenditure allocated to private insurance: 109 euros per year per inhabitant, while the regional average in Spain is 178 euros
The number of consultations with specialists per inhabitant per year and per 1,000 inhabitants shows a ratio of 0.05, well below the regional average, which is 0.47. However, consultations with a private family doctor have nothing to envy of those in the rest of the national territory: 22.3 Cantabrians out of every 1,000 have done so in the last year (24.75 is the national average).
On the other hand, the percentage of the population covered by mutual societies of civil servants who have chosen private assistance is 3.8% of the total in Cantabria, compared to a national average of 3.61%.
To prepare the report, data on the population covered by private insurance from civil servants’ mutual societies (Health Barometer), per capita health spending on private insurance (IDIS), and out-of-pocket health spending (payments per consultation) per capita ( INE), percentages of health expenditure dedicated to agreements with private centers (Ministry of Health), of private hospital beds over the total (MS), of high-tech equipment in private hospitals over the total (MS) and the number of annual consultations to specialists from the private health sector per 1,000 inhabitants (MS). The percentage of people who have visited a private general practitioner in the last year (Health Barometer) has also been taken into account. However, the data are not as homogeneous as they should be due to the lack of transparency of public administrations, FASDP clarifies, although it concludes that this does not invalidate the results, especially one: private healthcare continues to rise in the country.
“We must be aware that the contracting figures of the public system with the private sector are underestimated for two reasons: the presence of the model of civil servants’ mutual societies, which mostly dedicates public funds to finance private insurance, and then because there are “many cases of direct contracting of health centers with the private sector (diagnostic tests, etc.) with which these items are not accounted for in a differentiated manner and are included in the budgets of public centers,” concluded the organization that has published The report.
Legends:
- Mutual: Percentage of population covered by Civil Servants’ Mutual Insurance that has chosen private assistance (in % of total population).
- GS Private Security: Health expenditure on private insurance (€/year).
- GS Pocket: Out-of-pocket health expenditure per capita (€/year).
- Private GS Conc.: Percentage of health spending dedicated to contracting with private centers.
- Private beds: Percentage of private hospital beds over the total.
- private AT: Percentage of high-tech equipment in private hospitals over the total.
- Ctas. Private Esp.: Consultations per inhabitant and year to specialists in the private health sector/1000 inhabitants.
- Ctas. General Med. Priv.: Percentage of people who attended consultations with a private family doctor.