Experts call for reforms in Spanish health system

"We have to rethink our system," Nuria Mas, associate professor of economics at IESE business school, said on Tuesday at the 22nd health care industry meeting being held here.

Mas, a health industry expert, explained that the health sector is dealing with problems of sustainability due to the current challenges it has to face, hence why the system needs to be reassessed. Such challenges include the increase of chronic diseases, most of which have something to do with stress, food, and doing exercise, she pointed out.

At the meeting, leading experts discussed how to deal with new challenges in an era with more technological advances, more chronic diseases, a rise in life expectancy and a tight budget.

Mas commented on the situation of Spain, emphasizing the importance of economic growth linked to more spending on the health sector.

Candido Perez Serrano, from law firm KPMG-Spain, said "health as we know it today is a success, but this success is causing, in many cases, problems of sustainability." According to him, the fiscal adjustment carried out during the crisis in Spain was not enough to solve the sustainability problem and innovation could be the key to addressing the challenges.

Inaki Ereno, from Bupa Group (a private health insurance), emphasized the importance of the collaboration between the public sector and the private sector. "Public health has lagged behind in technology, but there are people willing to invest. There are solutions," he pointed out.

He defended a public system complemented with a private system. "People need to be aware of the cost of the public health system and prevention needs to be boosted," he said. Endit