La sanidad pública en Españacrisis económica y reformas

Resumen

In the last decade the steady growth of public health spending observed in our country has become a determinant factor of common concern for all authorities and decisionmakers responsible for public health. Moreover, the economic recession and the subsequent fiscal consolidation effort imposed on public administrations, has highlighted the fragility and vulnerability of the current welfare economic support, and particularly of the National Health System, given the continuing economic downturn scenarios. Given this situation, it is inevitable the reconsideration of a healthcare model that ensures a good balance between an adequate public health protection and the sustainability of the system in the short and long term, obtaining at the same time the best results in terms of efficiency and equity . In this context, given the battered state of the public accounts, the various levels of government have been forced to adopt a set of contextual urgent measures to contain the public health expense, along with other structural reforms. The latter, far from solving the problem of the current public health financial model in Spain, seems to have laid some groundwork toward setting a much more solid model to face future economic crises.