The president of the Champalimaud Foundation, Leonor Belleza, said on Saturday, at PSD Summer University, that the health debate has changed since the pandemic and criticized the excessive control of spending in the sector.
Leonor Belleza stated at the last dinner conference during a training week for the “oranges” youth in Castelo de Vide.
The former health minister acknowledged that the debate on this topic was too “ideological”, pointed to the growing increase in private funding in the provision of care, and once again defended freedom of choice.
“Year after year, private financing for healthcare provision in Portugal was more important, when compared to public financing for healthcare provision,” he noted, stressing that in 2020, Portugal spent €21 billion, of which €14.5 billion came from public financing and €7 billion private financing. He added that after a year, total spending rose to 23 billion euros, of which 15 billion were for the public and 8 billion for the private sector.
The state councilor also defended the existence of “careful” and “very invasive” control of health expenditures: “AndThere is some deviation in the way this need for control should be seen. Above all, there is great mistrust in the Ministry of Finance regarding the Ministry of Health,” he said in a criticism of Fernando Medina’s ministry.
Leonor Belleza pointed to the fact that the hospital budget is the responsibility of the Minister of Finance, as stipulated in the Statute of the National Health Service, approved in August and in the Regulation. He stressed that the matter “is not for the Minister of Health, it is for the Minister of Finance.”
About the chaos in the emergency services in obstetrics, the Social Democrat expressed concern and admitted that it was an urgent situation that must be resolved. But he, in turn, criticized the “absurd” rush to hospital emergency rooms: “This happens because people do not feel sufficiently supported in primary health care units,” he emphasized.
The former minister confirmed the increase in the health budget and the increase in the number of professionals, but warned of the need for reforms in this sector. “There is something in all of this that is not working well, and therefore, he needs those repairs that are not cosmetic repairs. It is not about putting more money and more professionals in there. This does not solve it, there is a productivity problem,” he summed up.
But he noted that the country’s main problem is low economic growth: “Our biggest problem is to see how we can produce more, be richer. We need to understand how we are going to make the country grow stronger,” he concluded.
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