muface start one key week very awaiting the publication of the sheet where the Government details all the fine print of the new tender. It is the first step to end the crisis in the mutual insurance company after the insurers left the first one deserted. 1.5 million officials and family members live in fear not knowing what will happen to their healthcare. On Friday, the Government assured that this deadline of January 31 would be extended until the first weeks of February.
The crisis of this mutuality has kept his mutualists since the first tender was void on November 5. The Government raised insurers by 17%. It wasn’t enough. Now it reaches 33.5%, but it will not be until they see that document and its fine print that they will decide whether to come to continue providing service for three years.
The Secretary of State for Public Service, Clara Mapelli, announced today that the new tender for the Muface healthcare agreement will be made public imminently. It was even expected to be today, but at 6:00 p.m. it still did not see the light.
Deadline to submit offers
After said meeting, the UGT union recalled that the term to present the offers on the part of the insurerswhich is 25 calendar days, would end the January 14, 2025 if it is confirmed that the second tender will be launched this Friday. If it is Monday you have to add days. The Public Service estimates that once all the procedures have been carried out, the new contract could be formalized in the first half of February.
Concern of mutualists
At the meeting, UGT has transferred the concern of mutualists before him end of current concert on January 31 2025. The Government’s response, according to the union, has been that Muface has decided to start a continuity orderwhich is a safeguard mechanism provided for in the Public Sector Contracts Law together with the forced extension, to be able to extend the current contract until the next one is formalized.
In this sense, according to the unions, Muface sent a communication to the insurers on December 17, once the Council of Ministers approved the new tender, notifying them of the activation of said mechanismwhich involves a one-month extension of the contract once the previous one ends, so it would be extended until the end of February 2025, paying them during this month based on the price of the new tender.
What will happen in January if there is no new tender?
Meanwhile, throughout January, mutual members who decide to do so will have the opportunity to switch from the concerted option to the healthcare of the autonomous communities, and subsequently, a extraordinary period in the month of March for the changes in affiliation between insurers to be made, as well as the return to the Muface health model, as indicated by the CSIF union. Finally, in June a second period of change between the different options is established.
Muface as it is, in the air
Likewise, during the meeting the Government reported that it plans to promote a broad reflection of the healthcare model of Muface once the conclusions of the sustainability report commissioned from the Independent Authority for Fiscal Responsibility (AIReF) are known.
On this issue, CSIF has warned that this reflection must be aimed at improving and strengthening the model and not at its disappearance. This was its position since the Ministry of Health handled a report on its possible closure, with the progressive entry into public health of all its mutalists.
“Do you think it’s perfect? ​​Believe me, it’s not,” Minister Óscar López said yesterday. The head of Public Function assured that “after 50 years there has been things that have not been reviewedsuch as for example that there are officials who are not from the General Administration of the State, who are from the Autonomous Communities, to whom the insurance is paid from the general budget of the State and not that of the Autonomous Community”, he assured. López. The minister added that there is another issue “that no one wants to talk about”, which is the older population.
What insurers ask for
And this is one of the problems that insurers encounter when continuing with the Muface healthcare concert. That first linear increase by the Government of 17% does not convince Adeslas, Asisa or DKV. The three that currently guarantee Muface’s health did not appear in the first tender. They asked not only for an increase in the premium, but also to take into account age quotas. Everything seems to be contemplated in this second tender that, if it continues its course, could give peace to these mutualists in February.