VICENTE LOZANO
@vicentelozano
Madrid
Updated on Monday, 27September2021-01: 31
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The truth is that the General Mutual Fund for Civil Servants of the State (Muface) is a
peculiar organization
and that, if viewed from a socializing perspective, it privileges some citizens over others ... as long as we think that being able to go to private healthcare before the public is a privilege.
It can be understood, then, that a
left
-
wing government
- or the most radical part of it - tries to
end this health model
, despite the fact that it saves hundreds of millions to the State every year.
It is that left that prefers to nationalize services that work reasonably well in the public-private partnership model, even though citizens have to pay more for it.
That is what the tax increases are for.
Muface is once again in the political spotlight these days.
Podemos presented a non-law proposal on September 15 for its gradual dissolution because the "
maintenance of the Mutual Societies of Civil Servants on the fringes of our health system constitutes a source of inequities
",
How do you want to end up with Muface? Podemos proposes that the
new officials who are joining the Administration have to compulsorily join the National Health System
, without being able to opt for the mutual, as now, which in practice would mean their death by starvation over time. In a similar situation are the other two companies that operate with concerts with private companies: the General Judicial Mutual Fund (Mugeju) and that of the Armed Forces (ISFAS).
This has
aroused
the sectors involved, from
the mutual beneficiaries
themselves
, the civil servants,
to the
private health care
companies
that provide service to the mutualists. Muface served 1.48 million people in 2019, of which one million are owners and 477,000 beneficiaries. The secondment to Muface by the civil servants is optional. The
76% of this group chooses mutual,
while the remaining 24% prefer to
go directly to the National Health System. The 2019 budget amounted to 1,745 million euros, of which 76% was contributed by the State and 19% by the contributions of mutualists.
The non-law proposal presented by Podemos calls for
"the integration of administrative mutualism into the general Social Security regime."
The health care companies involved consider this request unaffordable, which would significantly reduce their income, because the public health system would collapse.
The Institute for the Development and Integration of Health (IDIS), considers that it is not being sufficiently valued that "
the destruction of Muface would produce a domino effect with very serious consequences for all health
". IDIS quantifies between
"720 and 800 million euros" per year the savings for public health
that represents the special regime for civil servants. In addition, it considers that the arrival of 1.8 million people to the public system would increase its collapse to the unacceptable: health companies predict, for example, that the
hospital coverage of the public system would reach 98%
after the disappearance of the equivalent of one thirty hospitals and private health centers.
Officials have also risen up against the Podemos initiative.
CSIF, the main union of public officials, has recalled that the 'Muface model' "arises not as a privilege but as a social security model
born to correct a discrimination suffered by officials with respect to the rest of Spanish citizens and is still not a privilege nowadays, although some are in charge of trying to show the opposite, with
ideological criteria
". CSIF believes that the Government must "guarantee" the continuity of mutuality to avoid continuous attacks from political spheres.
The Government - the socialist part of the Government - tries to temper bagpipes. In the Ministry of Finance and Public Function they say that "
the dismantling of Muface is not considered"
and that it is an issue that is not in the government agreement with Podemos, so it does not make sense to raise it at this time. The ministry recalls the support for the Plan Muface Avanza 2021-2023, which sets the strategy and objectives of the mutual in the next biennium, which was approved by the general council of the mutual in December last year.
But the distress in Muface is not over. Last week the Ministry of Economy proposed an
increase in premiums
- what Muface pays to health companies to provide their services to public employees - of 8% for 2022 and 10% for the next few years. An increase that is considered
"unsustainable"
by ASPE, the sector's employer's association, which claims a 10% rise for 2022, 12.5% the following year and 15% for 2024, which also requires compensation for expenses caused by Covid.
The NLP of Podemos has little experience:
who is facing 1.8 million citizens in an election that is angry because their health care conditions have changed?
For this reason, in the end, the Treasury and the health insurers will agree on the increase in premiums.
For now, Muface is 'too big to fail',
even if they try to knock her down.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
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