2023-07-25 07:43:17
In Seville there are more than 500,000 people with private health insurance. That is, 25.7% of the population or what is the same, one in four Sevillians supplements their health care with private insurance. Within this number, however, are also included civil servants from the central administration, justice or the military who also have a health service offered by a private entity. In any case, a number that is increasing and that only throughout 2022 gained close to 10,000 followers.
The pandemic has given new priority to everything related to health. Proof of this is that in the latest barometers from the Center for Sociological Research (CIS) this parameter continues to rise as one of the main concerns of Spaniards, only behind problems related to the labor market and the economic crisis. The population demands an adapted, solid healthcare system with resources that provide the best possible care for patients, in which private healthcare plays a significant role as a complement to the public system due to its contribution to improving accessibility, quality, technological development or the sustainability of the global healthcare system.
According to data from the Spanish Union of Insurance and Reinsurance Entities (Unespa), in Seville, the number of people with a private health insurance policy has increased by close to 30% in the last ten years, going from 361,491 to 504,563 insured, that is, 143,072 more people.
The data means that 25.7% of the Sevillian population has private health insurance, a percentage only surpassed in Andalusia by Malaga, where close to 30% of its neighbors have a private health policy. In the rest of the country, Seville is surpassed by all the provinces of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands, Madrid and the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla.
In general, the percentage of people with health insurance has increased among the entire Spanish population in the last decade. In Seville, the volume of insured has grown between 2011 and 2022 by 6.96%. In Andalusia in general, the figure is even higher, from 7.52%, going from 1,231,128 to 1,886,108; and in Spain, this figure has increased by 6.83% in eleven years, from 8,724,961 people to 12,055,250.
All in all, and although the growth of the sector has been continuous over a decade, in recent years, the pandemic and, consequently, the collapse in public healthcare, caused the largest increases in private healthcare users to take place in 2020 and 2021. Specifically, 5.7% and 4.3%, respectively. In total, 48,572 more users in two years.
It should be noted that during this period, in addition to the increase in waiting times in public health, insurance has been created low cost, in which the price does not exceed 20 euros per month. A situation that does not go unpunished for the medical sector, as associations such as the Spanish Association of Free Practice Physicians (Unipromel) have repeatedly denounced, which claims to update the scales of private doctors with insurers, which, says its president Ignacio Guerrero, have been frozen for more than 30 years. The Seville College of Physicians is also fighting its own battle. They ask the insurers for dialogue and have even gone so far this year to star in several days of work stoppages in consultations to demand a reaction that, for the moment, remains without progress.
On the other hand, the contracting of health insurance by companies as a payment mechanism in kind is also partly responsible for this prolonged increase in insured, according to the Unespa employers’ association. “Many companies have incorporated health insurance for their workers as a complementary remuneration concept. Health insurance is, in fact, one of the most valued social benefits among the workforce. This makes insurance a tool for attracting and retaining talent. In addition, they help reduce absenteeism,” the same sources highlight.
In any case, Unespa emphasizes that public and private health are not rivals, but rather complement each other. “The care provided by private health care is saved by the public health system. Those who take out health insurance make use of it and, although they can go to Public Health like any taxpayer, they go to the private one and thus alleviate the workload that public centers have,” they highlight.
This has been revealed during the Covid-19 pandemic. “The insurance sector has facilitated access to care for coronavirus patients. It has also paid for covid-19 diagnostic tests for millions of people in Spain. Through actions like these, insurance has contributed to containing the pandemic in the country,” they say. According to 2021 data, there are 11.5 million people who pay for health insurance in Spain and, therefore, do not consume public health services. “The cost savings for the Administration generated by private insurance is, therefore, evident,” they conclude.
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