The Council of Ministers has approved this Tuesday the Bill on Public Management and Integrity of the SNS, known as the anti-privatization law.
The text would repeal Law 15/1997, which allows public-private collaboration in Healthcare. The purpose is to limit privatizations to exceptional situations, and always with prior evaluation, thus prioritizing public management.
If it prospers, it would only allow the hybrid model (indirect provision) in the event that direct management by public administrations or entities or through consortia constituted between several public administrations or entities is not possible (article 5 of the text).
Furthermore, indirect management must always guarantee financial sustainability and efficiency; while complying with requirements for quality, continuity, accessibility, and affordability of the service.
While it is true that the main point of friction between the PSOE and Sumar has been smoothed over, which was the limitation of exceptions that would allow privatizations and the consequent repeal of Law 15/1997, its parliamentary processing seems more than complicated.
The Health Commission has become a sort of pit into which, law that arrives, law that runs aground. The only exception, the State Public Health Agency. Regarding the content as such of the preliminary draft on anti-privatizations, negotiations with ERC, Junts, and PNV are foreseen as insurmountable due to the impact of public-private collaboration in health matters in Catalonia and the Basque Country.