The cuts are in addition to those announced in the 2012 State Budget last week and were announced by a press release today.
The Spanish Government has today, Monday, announced a 10 billion € cut in spending on Health and Education in a press release.
It came despite the fact that today was a Bank Holiday in six regions including Cataluña and Valencia, and no member of the cabinet appeared to present the cut which was not contemplated in the 2012 State Budget announced last week.
The Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, met on Monday with his Health and Education Ministers, Ana Mato and José Ignacio Wert, to prepare the details of the reforms.
The Government wants to save more than 10 billion from the two ministries.
The Moncloa Palace press release explained that this new cut would have an annual character and be added to the cut of 27.3 billion € cut in public spending announced in the 2012 budget last week. The cabinet speaks of the intention to achieve ‘better rationalisation, eliminate duplicate services and improve efficiency in the two large public services’.
The changes start almost immediately this month.
On a more party political point, statements have come from the Partido Popular underlining that the health system will remain free at point of use, and a co-payment idea, and another idea to charge top-earners will not proceed.
It’s not entire clear how or when the Health and Education Ministers will meet with the regions, both services being devolved to the autonomous governments, but presumably a series of meetings are now imminent.
The current healthcare system is reported to be 20 billion € in debt currently. The regions have been surviving on money supplied by central government.
The Deputy General Secretary of the PSOE Socialists, Elena Valenciano, has commented that the health and education systems ‘cannot support a 10 billion € adjustment’. She said she needed to speak to Rajoy, as it ‘could question the health and education that we know’.
Source: Typically Spanish
