The CEOE asks to increase the concerts with the Administration in Dependency | Society
Employers of services for dependents request that the subsidies of the Administration in the matter of Dependency be increased, that is to say, that more places in geriatric and other private centers be arranged and that they be paid more for them -which adapt "to the cost real"-. A report presented this Friday in Madrid proposes a new financing model and advocates for the development of a residence accreditation system based on the qualifications, personnel and quality offered to the user. In addition, it raises the need to create a single clinical history, combining health information with social services.
"The law was born in 2006 full of content and optimism, but unfortunately empty of resources," said Cristina Contel, president of the commission of health and social affairs of the CEOE, which has prepared the report. "One of the basic problems that it has had is that financing is subject to economic cycles. Also, that the norm regulates the user's participation in the service he receives, although he does not set the percentage ", pointed out Carlos González Bosch, Contel's predecessor in the aforementioned commission.
Entrepreneurs propose that the benefit linked to the service be prioritized, that is to say, an economic aid that is given to the employee so that he can hire the service he wants with that money and then contribute the rest of what he can afford. Ignacio Vivas, president of the Association of Service Companies for Dependency (AESTE), considers that this option enhances "the user's choice capacity". "In addition to improving the quality of the system as a whole, if the residences have to attract people, they will strive to provide better services," he added. And he pointed out that the Administration must guarantee a quality service to all citizens, regardless of their income, but that users with more economic capacity "must have a contribution". Critics with this initiative remember that this can open a way of assistance for those who have resources and another assistance for those who do not.
In Spain there are some 366,000 places in 5,375 residences, according to figures from the AESTE, of which 99,000 are public and 267,000, privately run regardless of their ownership. According to data of this association, in the 400 residences that group, 30% of the places are arranged and the rest, private. The report urges the promotion of public-private collaboration, that is, to increase the number of concerts with the Administration, "encouraging the role of private companies and services in the provision of services".
Carlos González Bosch has also pointed out that the percentage that the user assumes through the co-payment is unknown due to the differences between communities. The businessmen advocate opening a "debate" about it, "should be implemented a real and responsible exercise" based on the income and assets of the person, although they have not specified figures, but have referred to a study to be carried out in the future.
The CEOE It also advocates that care in the family environment be exceptional, as established by law, and for professionalizing services. It also requests that the same VAT be charged to residences, regardless of whether they are public or private. As explained by AESTE, currently the levy applied to users of private centers is 21%, in publicly owned centers, 4%, and those managed by non-profit institutions does not apply VAT. Employers request that the type be homogenized to the hyper-reduced, that is, 4%. And they ask for improvements in dependency insurance, that the calculation of the personal economic capacity of the beneficiary is not computed as equity when determining their contribution to the service or benefit to be received.
The report also urges the promotion of socio-health coordination and the creation of a single story for users, "facilitating all the agents with the health and social information of the elderly, through computer integration".
