5 ms·

> "Primary care is essentially provided by public providers, specialized family doctors and staff nurses, who provide preventive services to children, women and

> "Primary care is essentially provided by public providers, specialized family doctors and staff nurses, who provide preventive services to children, women and elderly patients, and acute and chronic care," The public healthcare here in Spain has an endemic problem of ever reducing budgets, and it's so saturated (because of that) that most people that can also get private healthcare. When politicians touch that is to reduce the budget even further. Yet people think that the main problems in Spain are other things... damn the propaganda machine.

nairboon 8y ago
So what are the main problems in Spain, according to what most people think? (I'm not very familiar with Spain)
- adrinavarro 8y ago
  National politics (Catalonia, etc). But there's also an endemic issue with spending on unnecessary infrastructure while underfunding heavily used infrastructure (such as public transportation in large cities); our budgets never seem to be able to reduce debt, and our pension system is doomed to explode, because eventually there will be more retired than working people.
  - collyw 8y ago
    Given that the life expectancy is so high maybe it makes sense to raise the retirement age here by a few years more.
- manuelflara 8y ago
  Sadly, the political landscape has been pretty much monopolized by the Catalonian independence issue, with politicians using it as a smoke screen to cover way more important issues like constant corruption scandals, rampant privatization of health care, double-digit yearly increases in utility bills, housing rent bubble, etc.
manuelflara 8y ago
Indeed, the public healthcare system in Spain, while still great compared to most of the world, is a shadow of what it once was, with the rampant privatization done by the Government in the last decade. A really sad situation. That being said, decent private healthcare here is about 100€/month, so while private healthcare is still considered "a luxury" (because public one is pretty good), it's still very very far from the cost of US private healthcare.
- antr 8y ago
  Rampant privatization? Spain's public healthcare expenditure[1] was: 38.552 €bn in 2002, and 66.678 €bn in 2016 (latest official year), this is a 73% increase in 14 years. On other hand while population was 41.31 m in 2002, and 46.48 m in 2016, A 13% increase. This is a 53% net increase in expenditure per capita. I'm curious to know what "rampant privatization" to you means, as government/public expenditure has by no means slowed down, quite the contrary. In my opinion, healthcare expenditure is out of control. But that is a completely different debate. [1] http://www.mscbs.gob.es/en/estadEstudios/estadisticas/inforRecopilaciones/gastoSanitario2005/home.htm http://www.mscbs.gob.es/en/estadEstudios/estadisticas/inforR...
  - dagw 8y ago
    I'm curious to know what "rampant privatization" to you means, as government/public expenditure has by no means slowed down, quite the contrary. I don't know about Spain, but at least in Sweden there's an argument that the increase in privatization in the health care sector has resulted in higher costs (and thus higher government expenditure) without matching improvement in heath care outcomes.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
  - pjc50 8y ago
    Are those numbers inflation-adjusted? Raw expenditure tells us nothing about whether or not it has been privatised, too. Often the privatised services are more expensive - after all, they have to pay dividends.
melenaboija 8y ago
Spanish healthcare is among the best in the world despite the problems. Also, quite bold calling propaganda a report from United Nations analyzing population health. What do other problems the country has have to do with the people health? Maybe your comment contains some propaganda too.
- JaumeGreen 8y ago
  I think you misundertood my comment. Propaganda is what is done in Spain to make people look at fake problems instead of the real ones. I don't think this report is propaganda.
  - melenaboija 8y ago
    I know you are not saying the report is propaganda, but I understand you mean appearing in media is. What I am saying is that besides the intention of the article (which is Bloomberg giving UN results) these are facts. Seeing this facts stated might help others and it does not mean stop fighting for other causes in the country.
    - JaumeGreen 8y ago
      > I know you are not saying the report is propaganda, but I understand you mean appearing in media is. No, I do not mean what you are saying. I was talking about what is on the newspapers these days on here: * Catalonia * Next general elections (on April) * "Minor" cases of corruption (relative to others in either money amount or the person affected) * Football (Soccer for the people from USA) * Venezuela * "Famous" people (only famous because they appear on media as "famous") * Bad migrants * Memes What is not talked about is: * Mayor cases of corruption * Dismantling of the public sector (before it was in big steps, now it is in small ones) * Housing bubble (again) * Low salaries * Bad support to small entreperneurs * The reasons why there are more migrants and what to do
      - melenaboija 8y ago
        I'm sorry. I keep seeing much more political intention in your comments than the article per se.

nairboon 8y ago

So what are the main problems in Spain, according to what most people think? (I'm not very familiar with Spain)

adrinavarro 8y ago
National politics (Catalonia, etc). But there's also an endemic issue with spending on unnecessary infrastructure while underfunding heavily used infrastructure (such as public transportation in large cities); our budgets never seem to be able to reduce debt, and our pension system is doomed to explode, because eventually there will be more retired than working people.
- collyw 8y ago
  Given that the life expectancy is so high maybe it makes sense to raise the retirement age here by a few years more.
manuelflara 8y ago
Sadly, the political landscape has been pretty much monopolized by the Catalonian independence issue, with politicians using it as a smoke screen to cover way more important issues like constant corruption scandals, rampant privatization of health care, double-digit yearly increases in utility bills, housing rent bubble, etc.

manuelflara 8y ago

Indeed, the public healthcare system in Spain, while still great compared to most of the world, is a shadow of what it once was, with the rampant privatization done by the Government in the last decade. A really sad situation. That being said, decent private healthcare here is about 100€/month, so while private healthcare is still considered "a luxury" (because public one is pretty good), it's still very very far from the cost of US private healthcare.

antr 8y ago
Rampant privatization? Spain's public healthcare expenditure[1] was: 38.552 €bn in 2002, and 66.678 €bn in 2016 (latest official year), this is a 73% increase in 14 years. On other hand while population was 41.31 m in 2002, and 46.48 m in 2016, A 13% increase. This is a 53% net increase in expenditure per capita. I'm curious to know what "rampant privatization" to you means, as government/public expenditure has by no means slowed down, quite the contrary. In my opinion, healthcare expenditure is out of control. But that is a completely different debate. [1] http://www.mscbs.gob.es/en/estadEstudios/estadisticas/inforRecopilaciones/gastoSanitario2005/home.htm http://www.mscbs.gob.es/en/estadEstudios/estadisticas/inforR...
- dagw 8y ago
  I'm curious to know what "rampant privatization" to you means, as government/public expenditure has by no means slowed down, quite the contrary. I don't know about Spain, but at least in Sweden there's an argument that the increase in privatization in the health care sector has resulted in higher costs (and thus higher government expenditure) without matching improvement in heath care outcomes.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- pjc50 8y ago
  Are those numbers inflation-adjusted? Raw expenditure tells us nothing about whether or not it has been privatised, too. Often the privatised services are more expensive - after all, they have to pay dividends.

melenaboija 8y ago

Spanish healthcare is among the best in the world despite the problems. Also, quite bold calling propaganda a report from United Nations analyzing population health. What do other problems the country has have to do with the people health? Maybe your comment contains some propaganda too.

JaumeGreen 8y ago
I think you misundertood my comment. Propaganda is what is done in Spain to make people look at fake problems instead of the real ones. I don't think this report is propaganda.
- melenaboija 8y ago
  I know you are not saying the report is propaganda, but I understand you mean appearing in media is. What I am saying is that besides the intention of the article (which is Bloomberg giving UN results) these are facts. Seeing this facts stated might help others and it does not mean stop fighting for other causes in the country.
  - JaumeGreen 8y ago
    > I know you are not saying the report is propaganda, but I understand you mean appearing in media is. No, I do not mean what you are saying. I was talking about what is on the newspapers these days on here: * Catalonia * Next general elections (on April) * "Minor" cases of corruption (relative to others in either money amount or the person affected) * Football (Soccer for the people from USA) * Venezuela * "Famous" people (only famous because they appear on media as "famous") * Bad migrants * Memes What is not talked about is: * Mayor cases of corruption * Dismantling of the public sector (before it was in big steps, now it is in small ones) * Housing bubble (again) * Low salaries * Bad support to small entreperneurs * The reasons why there are more migrants and what to do
    - melenaboija 8y ago
      I'm sorry. I keep seeing much more political intention in your comments than the article per se.