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The justifications to health cuts are the previous step to privatization, according to experts
Four health experts have published a book in which they warn that the "pseudodiscourse" that it is inevitable to apply cuts in the current economic context hides, in fact, an intention to privatize the health sector that already comes from afar.
"The problem is no longer so much cuts, but these adjustments are being used as an excuse to take advantage of the neoliberal movements that, for years, want health to open to private capital," explained Joan Benach, oneFrom the authors of the book Health is for sale. "
In an interview, Benach has assured that "Health is the great jewel of the state crown that is still left to exploit and get benefits."
Benach is a professor at the Research Group in Health Inequalities (GREDS) at Pompeu Fabra University (UPF) and, between 2005 and 2008, collaborated with the World Health Organization (WHO) analyzing the social factors that determine the state of healthof people.
The other authors of the book, Carles Muntaner and Gemma Tarafa, are also Greds researchers, while the fourth author, Clara Valverde, is a nursing professor and president of the League Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (SFC).
The authors of the book argue that, even before the outbreak of the crisis, neoliberal policies are "polluting" political discourse with theories such as health systems are unsustainable or "euphemisms" such as "rationalizing" spending.
For Benach, everything is a matter of priorities in the investment of public resources, but both CiU in Catalonia and the PP in Spain have chosen to launch a "battle of words" to "create a lot of confusion, distort everything public and get aDual Health, one from the poor public and another private of rich, "he says.
The book addresses the situation of health in different parts of Europe and also enters to value health policies that are being carried out in Spain.
The work criticizes the copay of the euro for recipe, considering it an ineffective system that only generates more inequity on Catalonia, the book openly criticizes formulas such as the euro co -payment per recipe, when considering it an ineffective system to reduce pharmaceutical expense and that only manages to generateMore inequity.
According to Benach, "the pharmaceutical expense in Spain is scandalous", but in large part by factors on which, the author says, you can act, such as the citizen idea that you have to leave the consultation with a recipe or the pressure ofPharmaceuticals about doctors to prescribe.
The UPF professor also rejects the speech that is spent a lot in health in Spain, since the investment is below the average of the Europe 15 or that of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
"We spend little on health and there is an infraction of officials, but it is still a fairly efficient system, although it can always be improved," summarizes the expert.
Benach also loads against the conflict of interests that, in their opinion, have some political leaders such as the Minister Ruiz himself, in his case, says the expert, for his professional past in the employer Catalan Union of Hospitals.
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