By Javier Segura del Pozo, Javier Padilla, Vanessa Puig Barrachina and Davide Malmusi
Budget cuts and privatisation
In Spain, the change in the system of entitlement (from universal to employment-based) and the increase and extension of prescribed drug copayments [0], together with a constellation of regional cost-saving measures, are only some of the changes that are provoking impacts on the access, quality and out-of-pocket expenditure for public healthcare. Most importantly, Spanish national and regional governments, ruled mainly by conservatives parties, have made good use of budget cuts targets to advance the privatisation process of the prestigious public funded and ruled Spanish Health Service.
