Gestor bibliográfico Crisis y Salud

Recent measures taken by the Spanish Government have broken the country's universal health coverage. Spanish health policy is thus going in the opposite direction to recommendations from the WHO Commission on Social Determinants of Health (CSDH) and in your Series on universal health coverage. These measures represent an unwelcome move towards a system with different access and availability for different population groups. People who do not contribute to social security will not have access to health care unless they can demonstrate an income level below the poverty line or pay for services. Regional differences could also open up as the regional governments of some Autonomous Communities plan to implement palliative measures by giving provisional access to these population groups. The WHO CSDH recommended reducing inequities by ensuring a good start in life, and having measures to support employment and good working environments. Instead, the Spanish Government has cut the budgets for sanitation and the public education system and has reduced benefits to families of lower socioeconomic status. Unemployment affects one in two people younger than 45 years, including most of the main family wage earners. It would be easy to predict that the health of Spain's next generation will be worse than that of the current one and that the health gap will increase unless governments, politicians, and civil society reverse the current trends on health and social policy. We declare that we have no conflicts of interest.