The Minister of Health, Mónica García, reiterated this Tuesday that her department is opposed to incorporating balneotherapy into the portfolio of services of the National Health System (SNS) because, despite having certain properties, "it is not therapeutic," and the inclusion of new services is governed by "scientific evidence."
"In the Ministry of Health, the portfolio of services is decided by strict technical criteria and strict scientific evidence criteria," García emphasized during the plenary session of the Senate, in response to a question posed by the senator from the Popular Party, Francisco José Fernández, who had inquired about the possible public financing of spas, currently explicitly excluded from the portfolio.
The head of Health gave the example that practicing yoga, exercising, or maintaining a good diet "also has properties," but "that does not mean that the common portfolio of the National Health System has to finance it." In the same vein, she made it clear that "Balneotherapy is not included, nor will it be."
García added that the portfolio of services must focus on addressing "challenges of enormous magnitude," citing among them advanced therapies, personalized medicine, genomic medicine, new diagnostic technologies, and the reduction of inequalities in access to healthcare. "That is where we must put our therapeutic efforts," she concluded.
Claim for spas as a healthcare resource
The PP senator based his question on an initiative by the Spa Towns section of the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FEMP), which in early June unanimously approved an agreement to request that the Government incorporate spa therapies into the SNS portfolio.
In his speech, Fernández argued that spas are a "source of health, well-being" and "can also reduce healthcare spending, hospitalizations, or intensive rehabilitation." Therefore, he called for them to be used as "a preventive health policy."
"Spa cures have therapeutic effects in chronic pathologies, osteoarthritis, rheumatic, respiratory, and dermatological diseases," he stressed, while emphasizing that therapeutic spa tourism "is a strategic healthcare, social, and territorial resource" and promotes job creation.