The Spanish Society of General Physicians and Family (SEMG) warned this Friday that the transfer of muface to public health should not be the result of “hasty solutions”, although he has hoped that it will be taken advantage of as “an opportunity” to strengthen the National Health System. “Our National Health System must be equitable, universal, and strong for allincluding officials, but this cannot be a hasty solution, because when we take hasty solutions, we cause inequalities,” stressed the president of the scientific society, Pilar RodrÃguez Ledo, in a meeting with the media.
In his opinion, it is difficult for the public system to absorb a million and a half officials “without thinking enough” and, even less, without giving it the resources it needs. “Let’s not forget that all this has arisen because the structure that provided health care to these people does not receive the money it needs to provide it. We cannot transfer that to the system that we believe is still cheaper and that can come out with less cost and on top of that without providing resources,” he added.
For this reason, it has appealed to the need to that “the needs and economic contribution are valued” because there must be “sufficiency of resources, especially for the Primary Care“because the majority of these patients come from a system based on direct specialist care, but now “someone will have to give them a global view of how they are.” And this too we will have to “think about it and provide it” because what would be unfeasible is to “put yet another burden” on Primary Care, which is already overwhelmed.
The essential thing will be “try not to lose quality” in carenot only of the mutualists, but of the group of beneficiaries of the public system. “We have to integrate everyone into an equitable and accessible system” and do so by “listening to professionals” because “it is also an opportunity to strengthen the public system” that must be taken advantage of.
1.5 million mutual members
SEMG’s bet is on a system “based on Primary Care level as coordinator, manager and backbone of healthcare. But it has to be done well,” he concluded. Next Monday, the Ministry of Health plans to inform the councilors about the implications that the transfer of Muface could have on the public system and that in a recent report it was considered not only “viable”, but also “reasonable”.
According to their calculations, the Muface model currently covers 1.5 million mutual membersof which 1,007,322 have chosen healthcare from private insurers (Asisa, Adeslas and DKV), which represents 67.3%. Of them, 42.4% are between 35 and 64 years old and almost a third (32%) are over 65. “The Muface model is not sustainable because no system works if it does not have a pool of risks that allows counterweights to be exercised between those who demand the service the most and those who make less intense use,” the document emphasizes.
Regarding this, RodrÃguez Ledo has trusted that the Ministry and the communities are capable of reaching a “useful” agreement and that they do so by consensus. At this meeting, the approval of the new Primary Care Plan 2025-2027 is also planned, which they trust will no longer be “wet paper.”