Livre wants to make the relationship between the public and private healthcare sectors fair and transparent

Livre MP Rui Tavares defended this Friday in Leiria the need to make the relationship between the public and private health sectors loyal and transparent, avoiding the unfair competition that, in his opinion, exists.

Stating that there are structural problems in health care that will still take time to resolve, linked to an aging population and a shortage of health workers, Rui Tavares defended a quick plan called a “health contract to be announced in the first 100 days of the next government, with a progressive and ecological majority,” as Livre wishes.

According to the sole MP from Livre, there needs to be “more transparency, more clarity” in the public and private sectors and that “this social peace will be achieved very quickly in 2024 so that dialogue can be had,” he put it. ending the crisis situation facing health care, “where everyone is fighting and probably everyone will be a little right, but no one is completely right.”

“We must have social and labor harmony within the NHS. [SNS], but we also need to make the relationship between public and private more loyal. At the moment, a situation of unfair competition has developed. We know everything about the public, good and bad, and we know practically nothing about the private,” he said after a meeting with the chairman of the board of directors of the local health department of the Leiria region, Licinho de Carvalho.

According to Rui Tavares, “the private sector can use this opacity to compete unfairly with society, at a certain point destroying society, and then worse for everyone.”

Therefore, “symmetrical and transparent information for both parties is necessary, since without this symmetry of information there can be no fair competition.”

The Livre founder added that the public health sector “doesn’t know how far it will be able to meet the wage proposals, but in the long run it’s worse for everyone, including professionals.”

“As soon as there is no state government, or it does not respond, or it is privatized, the owners of private medical companies will immediately reduce these salaries. Reducing what would be a cost for them at that time,” he warned.

At a meeting he held in Leiria, Rui Tavares said that he had confirmation “that if people have houses in which they live with greater thermal comfort, this means less pressure on social networks, fewer peaks in winter.”

“Hence our Casa, Conforto e Clima program, which seems to have little to do with health, but 70 thousand families have already been able to do work from home. We need to reach a lot more people because it takes the pressure off social media.” , He said.

Rui Tavares stated that this Friday’s meeting was aimed at understanding how the transition to the ULSRL model works. “There are promises of greater flexibility to allow, for example, ULS, which serves 400,000 people, to employ health workers. These promises have not been fulfilled because we have the government in control,” he said.

The MP also pointed to the need to direct part of the “surplus” in government accounts to identified crises: in health care, education and housing.

“Part of this “surplus” will pay off the debt, which is a good thing because it saves on interest. But if it only goes to debt, we will leave an unstable country, which will then give us other, more serious debts for the future. Another part should go to public investment, and the other to the social emergency we are experiencing,” he suggested.