The Government is studying a legal formula so that private healthcare can serve tourists with a European card

The Balearic Government is studying legal formulas so that private healthcare can serve tourists who have a European health card, a measure that, according to the councilor, Manuela García, will not have a budgetary impact for the Health Service (IbSalut). This was announced by García this Wednesday during a socio-health information breakfast organized by Europa Press in Madrid. The counselor has specified that the centers that participate must meet a series of “quality criteria”, among them, having an Emergency service, Emergency surgery, intensive care units and hospitalization. “The price has already been agreed upon, because it is the one that Europe pays,” García pointed out, emphasizing that the measure “is not going to have a negative impact on the IbSalut coffers”: “On the contrary, it may be a ‘win-win’. As reported by the head of Health, the Ministry is “working to find the appropriate legal formula” to materialize this measure, the need for which has been justified by the weight of the visiting population in summer, when “there are many professionals on vacation.” Remembered, the population of the Balearic Islands is around 1.2 million people, but in the summer period “it can double or triple”. In 2023, the Community was visited by 16 million travelers, people who “will also at some point use healthcare.” At the same time, García has reasoned that in the Community, private healthcare “has a very important weight.” “50 percent of healthcare professionals carry out some type of private practice and we are the second community in agreements after Catalonia,” he said.