«We firmly believe in the universality of healthcare. We believe it is a right and we are always defending that Human Rights take precedence over any bureaucratic element. And with this Royal Decree what we want (…) is to guarantee those rights. While Vox wants to deport 8 million people, what we want is to guarantee their rights,» said the Minister of Health, Mónica García, during an interview on TVE.
This initiative, which has already been put out for public consultation, aims to «specify» the criteria for migrants’ access to the Spanish healthcare system, so that the autonomous communities have a «clear, homogeneous, and protective» regulatory framework that materializes the right to health protection under equal conditions.
García referred to Royal Decree-Law 7/2018, which enables the Health Department to approve the necessary provisions to recognize the right to health protection and healthcare, funded by public funds.
«We have presented an extension of that universality law. But we have seen that in that 2018 law, it is necessary to specify what the access criteria for migrants to our healthcare system are,» she emphasized.
This public consultation is the «first step» to guarantee this healthcare, homogenizing the criteria throughout the national territory and reducing discretionary margins.
The recently opened process aims to gather the opinions of citizens and affected organizations, who can send their observations from July 12 to July 28, via email at ‘cpncartera@sanidad.gob.es’.
FINISHING THE DRAFT OF THE TOBACCO LAW REFORM
During her interview, García detailed that the draft of the Tobacco Law reform is being finalized, which will include the prohibition of smoking on terraces, among other measures, and is expected to be brought to the Congress of Deputies «soon.»
«We hope that the different parliamentary groups prioritize the health of citizens, prioritize scientific evidence, and be as ambitious as we are in the Ministry of Health,» the minister added.
After that, she expressed confidence that health problems are a «unifier» of different political interests, which is why she believes that her department will be able to convince all parliamentary groups to «protect» people’s health when they are «quietly dining on terraces with their families.»
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FUENTE