The Ministry of Health has had contacts with Unidas Podemos, ERC and other parliamentary groups to agree on the law of equity and universality of the National Health System, the “Darias law”
The Minister of Health, Carolina Darias saved with great haste the return of the bill to consolidate the equity, universality and cohesion of the National Health System, as it is called. In Congress, she had to negotiate several gangs to get it done and she had to commit to a series of deals. No negotiation comes cheap in the Lower House. This occurred at the end of September 2022.
Since then, the project has been stored in the Health Commission. It was logical that it fell in a corner, out of the spotlight. At that time there was such a saturation of laws in process that the Government left the text under a lot of regulations, the new budgets among them.
But, with the beginning of the new year, the Ministry of Health recovered the document and compiled the requests and claims of the parliamentary groups. Picked up one’s, especially.
Unidas Podemos threatened in September 2022 to vote in favor of the amendments to the totality registered by PDeCAT, JxCat, PP, Cs, Vox… The votes here of the purple ones, together with those of ERC, would have knocked down the law, which is by the way the star law of Carolina Darias, designated Socialist candidate for Mayor of Las Palmas. Finally, the group led by Pablo Echenique supported the process, as did ERC, PDeCAT and JxCat, and it did so because the Canarian leader spoke to everyone and told them: when the time comes, the time for the amendments, we will attend to your demands.
Attending is not accepting. It is negotiating. That is what the minister and her team are doing, they inform THE SPANISH NEWSPAPER, from the Prensa Ibérica group, parliamentary sources. “He is behaving & rdquor;, says one of the sources consulted. “Let’s go hand in hand,” says another, alluding to PSOE and United We Can. The common feeling is that the global agreement could materialize “in the coming weeks & rdquor ;.
Urgency is one of the keys. In the Health Commission they take it for granted that this will be the matter that will be placed at the top of the agenda and calendar as soon as the regular period of sessions resumes from February 1. It should be remembered that the norm is a requirement of the European Union in this context of reforms linked to the receipt of European funds, points out a deputy.
Although Unidas Podemos is the preferred group in the current state of the negotiations, the minister has not left her usual allies aside. Sources report that with CKD is developing a more and more profuse dialogue. There have been no joint meetings, the Ministry of Health on one side of the table and the groups on the other. What there have been have been separate meetings with the government partner and with the primary parliamentary ally.
The conclusion of the sources is that thanks to the conversations promoted by Darias the situation of the law is more promising. With everything, the agreement “is going to cost & rdquor;.
The pitfall of Podemos
The most important discrepancy between the government partners lies in point one of the first article of the project, which changes the current General Health Law, of 1986. The sources place the conflict in the total or partial repeal of the current articles. While the “purples & rdquor; They fight for complete annulment, the Government plans to go down one step. As one of the sources involved in the negotiation points out, the question is to complicate the paths of privatization as much as possible.
To understand what they are talking about, better recover the wording of the so-called “Darias law & rdquor;, which basically intends to give priority to public health and relegate the private one. To do this, he advocates adding a precept in which the “direct & rdquor; of the structures and public services that integrate the National system of health by the competent administration, by “entities & rdquor; belonging to the “institutional public sector & rdquor; at state, regional and local levels, or through “consortia& rdquor; created by those two spheres.
But immediately afterwards the Government opens the door to exceptions, and this is what angers United We Can. “Exceptionally, objectively justified and motivated, and only when the direct provision of public services that make up the National Health System is not possible,” the administration may resort to concerts or outsourcing, although under conditions established by the Interterritorial Council (Ministry and autonomous communities).
In the opinion of the leadership of Unidas Podemos, no real limits to privatization are drawn. Therefore, in September, he proposed corrections. He actually wrote a series of amendments, which, although it has not formally registered, since that parliamentary phase has not yet been inaugurated, is already being used to negotiate with the Ministry of Health. Echenique’s team proposes that “only unforeseen and extraordinary circumstances, which require urgent attention, and which cannot be attended by our own services” allow exceptionality.
In any case, the referral will last one yearat most, and may not affect services considered structural, such as hospitals, outpatient care centers or primary care centers.
The pitfalls of ERC and other formations
In the entire debate in September, the one that Darias saved after pulling a lot of tenacity and flexibility, and of course, by telephone, the representatives of EH Bildu, PNV, PDeCAT, JxCat and ERC portrayed the other great conflicting feature of the law: the jurisdictional invasion.
The representative of the Basque Nationalist Party Joseba Agirretxea He said then that his formation clearly supported the profiling of “indicators, guidelines and terms for the concerts”, but as long as the authors were the autonomous communities. In passing, he asked other questions: “The universality of access to health protection and health care with the individual health card & rdquor; and “suppress the need for express recognition by the state authorities of the insured status & rdquor ;. She ended the intervention with a warning: “You have acquired, Madam Minister, a commitment to reach an agreement and we take you at your word”.
they did the same PDeCAT, ERC and JxCatwhose representatives, Concep Cañadell, Xavier Eritja and Miriam Nogueras, respectively, came out in a rush to defend the catalan model, based on concerted public services. The three agreed on the complaint of interference with jurisdiction, a red line. Eritja called it “regulatory excess & rdquor ;, although he took the opportunity to demand more funding from the central administration.
Cañadell, on September 22, 2022, advanced the minister’s commitment to, within the future regulation, “shield & rdquor; the catalan system.
Other “urgent” laws
So the so-called “Darias law”, her predictable culmination as minister, since in a few months she will leave the Portfolio to run for Mayor of Las Palmas, has become, largely against the odds, one more piece of that puzzle of laws that the Government wants to approve as soon as possible.
It joins, therefore, the repeal of the ‘gag law’, on which there could be news next because the Interior Commission is preparing to approve the report of the presentation. If the agreement comes to fruition, it is likely to be a deal to the downside. Articles would have been left out on what infraction to give to the lack of respect to the agents or to the acts of disobedience and/or resistance to authority.
But that remains to be seen. Until the passage of the norm through the plenary session, there is room for the positions of the PSOE, on the one hand, and of Unidas Podemos, ERC and EH Bildu, on the other, to be reconciled. Two weeks left, at least.
The presentation of the Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda Commission that will analyze the report of the new housing law will take its first steps over the next few days, as will the one who will supervise the reform of article 49 of the Constitution, in which the term “diminished” still appears. The idea is to put an end to this antediluvian word and include “people with disabilities & rdquor ;.
Recently, the spokesperson for the PP in Congress, Cuca Gamarra, and Minister Félix Bolaños met to unblock this rule, which has been detained for almost a year and a half. The two essential parties for the constitutional reform did not advance (the vote in favor of 210 deputies is mandatory) because the popular did not trust that the process would prevent other tweaks in the Norm. It seems that fears have dissipated, and as parliamentary sources point out, the paper will soon be formed within the Constitutional Commission. “The procedure will be fast & rdquor ;, they add.