The Council of Ministers approved this Tuesday the second tender for the Muface concert, after the insurers left the first proposal void. The minister spokesperson, Pilar Alegría, has reported a cumulative increase in the premium of 33.5%. The Executive’s proposal represents an amount of 4,478 million euros, for the years 2025, 2026 and 2027. “I want to send a message of peace of mind to all mutual members because they will have their health care guaranteed under the same conditions that they currently enjoy. “Alegría insisted.
Specifically, with the new provision, the premium will increase by 19.37% in 2025; 7.25% more in 2026; and another 4.32% in 2027. “The average premium per mutual member per year will go from 1,032.12 euros currently to 1,262.28 in 2027,” the Ministry of Public Service indicates. Furthermore, among the novelties that the new tender incorporates, “it goes from a linear premium to an incremental one depending on the age groups, so that more is paid to insure older groups, and less for younger ones.” ”.
The president of the Idis Foundation, one of the sector’s lobbies, Juan Abarca, indicated this Tuesday that the total increase in three years was expected to be close to 25%. “It would be insufficient to compensate for the average growth in annual health spending, which is around 10% each year” but “since the increase is by age group, increasing premiums for the elderly gives a little peace of mind in the medium term so that they can “contain the increase in costs as a result of the aging of the group and guarantee that at the end of the three years the expected increase is greater than that 25%,” he published in your Linkedin account.
Finally, the total increase offered by the Government is 8.5 points higher than Abarca’s forecast, which already with 25% considered that “some insurer may participate, which kicks the model forward for a period of three years”. Sources from Adeslas, Asisa and DKV, the three insurance companies that currently provide services, have expressed caution to Europa Press, in the absence of knowing the specifications.
Despite defending “the largest increase in history”, of 17% for the years 2025 and 2026, the Ministry of Public Function made clear from the first moment its intention to prepare a second tender, which would improve the conditions and satisfy the insurers. private, which currently provide service to some 770,000 public workers and another 424,000 beneficiaries. However, the department headed by Óscar López changed the procedure, opening a period of preliminary market consultations for these companies to justify how much they would be willing to continue providing that assistance.
At the close of this procedure, the entity considered that the response of the insurers that had presented their allegations, only Asisa and DKV, “does not provide evidence of the costs that make up the total premium.” “It would have been desirable to obtain more information on the costs that justify the increase in the premium by operators,” Muface indicated in a report. In that document, it evaluated “favorably” the proposal for an “increase in premiums by age groups,” understanding that it is “more in line with the current reality of mutualism.”
Last week, the unions had increased pressure, with different protests focused on forcing an agreement between the Government and the companies to guarantee private healthcare to public officials. The Independent Trade Union and Civil Servants Central (CSIF) presented a report to the Ombudsman and the Congress of Deputies with “a multitude of complaints” from officials who had suffered “delays, suspensions and cancellations of appointments.” This Sunday, according to data from the union itself, some 35,000 people gathered in front of the Muface headquarters to demand “sufficient” financing. “We do not rule out any pressure measures, including a strike in public administrations,” warned its president, Miguel Borra.
This union “congratulates” the announcement of the new tender but asks for “prudence while waiting to know the position of the insurers.” “In any case, it is good news that the premium has been raised to improve health care,” they indicate in a press release, in which they show their hope “that an agreement will be reached as soon as possible” to “end “the uncertainty and neglect that mutualists currently suffer.”
Last Wednesday, UGT and CCOO demonstrated at the headquarters of Unespa, the private insurers’ association, to demand an “urgent solution.” That same afternoon, they summoned their members to the provincial headquarters of the mutual society.
The open crisis between the Government and private insurers has made the parties involved raise the need to reformulate the model. From Public Function they have stated that Muface is “an old invention that has been accumulating layers and has some elements more rational than others.” “If not, we wouldn’t be where we are. It is evident that there are things to review,” said ministerial sources, who have put on the table the possibility of officials choosing the model they want, public or private, “forever,” instead of being able to change every January. Even some voices in the sector point out that, although the budget is central, there are other axes that can be worked on, such as benefits or the age of the beneficiaries.
A Health report, which has no direct jurisdiction over mutual insurance, points out that “the current context means that, for the first time in many years, the possibility of incorporating the mutual benefit population into public health care is both a viable and reasonable option. ”. This Monday, on behalf of the Interterritorial Health Council, Minister Mónica García has indicated that the ball “is in the hands of the insurers” and has aligned herself with the Public Service: “On the part of the Government of Spain there is the greatest interest in the agreement comes out.”
While the private health lobby has been promoting the need for a 40% increase in premiums since the summer, private insurers will have to decide in the coming days whether they accept the new conditions and attend the concert or, on the contrary, prolong the agony. of a system from which more and more public workers are leaving. Although 70% of civil servants still opt for private healthcare, in 2022, two out of every three new civil servants chose public healthcare.
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