Mariana Mortagua says the government has ‘failed to respond’ to health concerns

On Tuesday, BE’s co-ordinator said the government was “failing to respond” to health challenges by trying to “find new models to avoid underinvestment” in the National Health Service (SNS).

“We know that the government of the absolute majority has been unable to respond to health problems. What it does is find new models to avoid the inevitable: lack of resources, lack of investment, huge bureaucratic burdens, huge centralization of resources, which then make it impossible to decentralize and have the autonomy of services that we want,” Mariana Mortagua told reporters.

The bloc leader made a speech during a visit to the Portuguese Association for the Protection of Diabetes (APDP) in Lisbon.

“We have pushed so hard (…) for an exclusivity program for medical professionals, for a recruitment program for medical professionals, for greater autonomy for hospitals in various areas and for SNS to be able to integrate services that this Tuesday go beyond SNS and which are very necessary,” he said.

Considering that SNS “can achieve much more,” Mariana Mortagua said her party “defends and offers 100% reimbursement of all medicines to those who earn below the minimum wage.”

“It is very important that everyone can have access to medicines and that in the case of chronic diseases, diabetes and diabetes-related diseases, the contribution can be 90%,” he said.

Mariana Mortagua believed that this “is how we can build a more just country.”

“I affirm the importance of this proposal because in a country where support for health care is traded, in a country where support for drug reimbursement is traded, this is the same country in which the government has refused to tax bank profits,” he charged.

Regarding the long wait by diabetics for the new generation of insulin pumps, the blocker recalled that in recent years BE has made several proposals to “promote the use of insulin pumps and their reimbursement.”

“We want and are fighting so hard for reimbursement for these drugs, which affect thousands of people (…) and which must receive a response from the state,” he emphasized.

In June 2023, the PS failed in parliament to demand full reimbursement of the cost of hybrid continuous subcutaneous insulin systems, which aimed to improve the quality of life of people with type 1 diabetes.

The Socialist majority voted against the texts of the Bloco de Esquerda (BE) and the PCP after Health Minister Manuel Pizarro announced the creation of a universal program that will apply until 2026.

The plan is the result of work developed by a team that estimates that around 30,000 people are affected by the disease in Portugal, with half of them expected to be eligible for treatment using automatic infusion systems.