Thousands of officials summoned by the majority union in the public service, the Independent Trade Union Center and Civil Servants (CSIF), demonstrated this Saturday in Madrid after the open confrontation between the Government and the medical insurers to renew the current agreement, which expires at the end of the year. The organizers have estimated around 35,000 people gathered at the doors of the Muface General Directorate in Madrid. A figure that has been reinforced with the assistance of members of the Jupol Police union and the Civil Guard union, Jucil. “We do not rule out any pressure measure, including a strike in public administrations,” warned the president of CSIF, Miguel Borra, while criticizing the fact that government parties such as Sumar do not support it.
The agreement by which 1.53 million public employees and their families have the right to choose each year between public or concerted healthcare expires on December 31, and insurers are obliged to serve civil servants until the end of January. Given the rush to find a solution, Borra claimed this Saturday from the platform that the Government “is playing with the health of 1.5 million people.” Likewise, it has asked that a “sufficient” tender be carried out and that insurers continue to provide assistance while the contract is in force. In this sense, he has reported that Muface is denying hundreds of medical tests and delaying consultations. One protester, María Toledano, a former official at the Ministry of Industry, claims that she has not been able to schedule an appointment with Adeslas since the beginning of November—at which time the situation erupted when the Government declared the agreement void. Toledano has an autoimmune disease diagnosed two decades ago and is concerned that the transfer of patients will deteriorate care. “I have doctors who have been treating me for more than 20 years. Now I have to tell a new doctor everything?” he asks. “What they want is for us retirees to die now, it is a retireecide” she claims angrily.
“This is not done, take away Muface” and “Muface, don’t go, Muface stay” have been some of the chants sung by officials gathered to rescue the concerted healthcare model that threatens to disappear. This has been reflected by some elements carried by the protesters, in addition to the union flags and banners, such as a cardboard coffin or a replica of the human skeleton in a wheelchair, under the sign “dead of starvation, mutualism solution.”
For Pedro Herranz, who worked at the Post Office until his retirement, the uncertainty has led him to move from Fuenlabrada to protest. He has a medical test scheduled for February and fears that a two-month wait will turn into many more. He feels that this situation is exhausting, “more so for those who are already of a certain age.”
Some officials have attended the call from other autonomous communities. Francisco Romero is a teacher from the province of Almería who believes that “a right acquired through many years of work” is being violated. He is worried about being transferred to the public health system, which “already has enough problems,” and he fears receiving “less personalized” care. That is another of Herranz’s fears. Although he recognizes that “there is also good public attention,” the disadvantage is that it is “very overcrowded.”
For her part, the deputy secretary of health and education of the PP, Ester Muñoz, present at the march, has charged against the Government, whom she has accused of “generating a problem where there was none” and creating an “unsustainable situation” due to this crisis. of Muface, claiming that it is a “model that has been positive” in recent years. “There are many officials, older and even retired, who feel uncertainty, who do not know if they are going to have to change doctors,” he assured. Meanwhile, Jupol spokesperson, Ibon Domínguez, has supported Miguel Borra’s statements before the media and has pointed out that in the case of the Police there are 10,000 annual casualties due to attacks, which “could go on forever” in the national health system. .
CSIF takes complaints to Brussels
The public workers union has taken to Brussels the “hundreds” of complaints they have received in recent weeks from mutual members in which they denounce that clinics are canceling, delaying and suspending medical appointments and surgical interventions due to the uncertainty about the health concert. These complaints were reported by the union to the Ombudsman last Monday and registered in the Congress of Deputies with the aim of the parliamentary groups proposing initiatives in defense of the health care received by the 1.5 million Muface mutual members. . By presenting these complaints in Brussels, the union seeks to ensure that both the European Parliament and the Commission are aware of the situation in which the public workers and their families assisted by Muface find themselves so that they “take the actions it deems necessary.”
The three insurers that are now paying attention to Muface (Adeslas, Asisa and DKV) because the Government proposed an increase in premiums of 17.12%, below the insurers’ request, which was around 40%. When the tender was void, the Government opened a period of ten business days, from November 21 to December 4, for insurers to notify Muface at what price they would provide the health service, specifying the fixed premiums that would have to be paid. pay for each age group for each year of the new concert (2025, 2026 and 2027).
The first tender for the concert covered the period 2025-2026, but the preliminary consultation establishes an estimated period of validity of the new concert of three years, from 2025 to 2027. After completing the consultation period, Muface has compiled the responses presented in a final report in which it indicates that the insurers DKV and Asisa have not provided Muface with “evidence of costs” regarding the total premium that they have suggested to the mutual society for the new healthcare agreement, while Adeslas has not participated in said preliminary consultation. With the information collected in this consultation, and with this report, the Government plans to launch a new tender for the private healthcare concert of Muface officials before the end of the year, as indicated by the Minister for Digital Transformation and the Public Service, Óscar López.
