Valencian Elections: Ximo Puig announces the rescue of another health department privatized by the PP | Society
The Valencian president, the socialist Ximo Puig, has announced this Saturday the rescue in a matter of "days" of the concession of the health department of La Marina if the operator that manages it continues without "being placed in a space of 'economic reasonableness" in the negotiation to sell the company to the Generalitat, which has been open for months. The cost of the rescue will be in the vicinity of 16 million euros, which is the value that the Valencian Government attributes to the operator.
The health department of La Marina Alta, which includes the Dénia Hospital, covers the health care of 150,000 people and was one of five privatized the PP. The Executive of Puig already recovered last year the direct management of the health department of La Ribera. Then he did it by not renewing the management contract of Alzira Hospital and the 45 health centers and clinics linked to it, which expired in 2018. The announcement made this Saturday by Puig in an act of PSPV-PSOE and four weeks of the Valencian elections suppose, however, to accelerate the aim of the concession, that in principle finishes at the end of 2023.
The operator of the department, called Marina Salud, is owned by the insurer DKV (65% of the participations) and the company Ribera Salud (35%). Puig promised the anticipated recovery of public control in 2016 due to the broad "social will" of the region. The way to do it was initially to buy the shares of the operator, a negotiation led by the Minister of Universal Health, Ana Barceló.
Plantón in the negotiation
The talks ran aground, however, because the majority shareholder, a subsidiary of a German multinational, considered insufficient the 16 million euros offered by the Generalitat. The representatives of DKV did not attend the last negotiating meeting planned a few days ago. Sources of the Valencian Government assure that they have offered to the company of insurance the maximum price that allowed by the law, calculated on the basis of the profits obtained by the company.
The process of rescuing an administrative concession is regulated by article 295 of the Law on Contracts of the Public Sector. The compensation, similar to that paid in an expropriation, to be paid by the Generalitat is also calculated by calculating "future benefits" that the concessionaire will not receive. Therefore the sources consulted believe that the final amount will not be far from the 16 million that the Valencian Government has already offered and DKV has not accepted.
Puig, who has made the announcement in a pre-campaign act, has assured that his party is not "obsessed with rescuing in an ideological way", but that the decision is the result of an evaluation of how the concession is working.
