The delay in breast cancer screening diagnosis that affected 2,317 women has given wings to the left Creating the narrative that healthcare is worse than ever with the Andalusian PP government And that President Juanma Moreno has a strategy in favor of “privatization.” Latest report of Constituent Institute for Health Development and Integration (IDIS)Defending the interests of private companies, Carton exposes this biased story of the reality of the Andalusian public system.
Analysis of this sector – which does not question the contemporaneity of political propaganda – shows this Andalusia is at the bottom of Spain in terms of spending and private healthcare users After comparing the spending of different autonomous regions. Only 22% of Andalusians have private insurance. In 2019, when the People’s Party came to the Council, spending per resident was higher: 25%.
According to estimates of the penetration of this type of policy in 2024, the degree of coverage of these contracts is determined Below the national average (26%) This is a far cry from the records reached in the Madrid region (37.5%), Catalonia (31.8%) and the Balearic Islands (30.8%), where insurance is more widespread.
In other words, 78% of the population choose, for whatever reason (economic, trust, or other), Andalusian Public Health, even though it is. It now occupies first place in the ranking of the problems that most affect Andalusiansabove employment, according to the latest measure published by the Center for Andalusian Studies (CENTRA) last October 20, or the so-called Andalusian CIS, based on 3,600 interviews.
Private health expenditure for every citizen
Andalusia also ranks twelfth among 17 autonomous regions in the world Distribution of private health spending per citizen: €660. Of this amount, Andalusians paid seven out of every ten euros (473 euros) out of their pockets to pay for consultations or medicines, and the rest (187 euros), through insurance, according to an IDIS report issued in April 2025 and based on official statistics from the Ministry of Health. The national average is 738 euros.
Madrid (910 euros), Catalonia (870), Aragon (864), Galicia (783), Balearic Islands (754) and the Basque Country (743) lead, while the countries with the lowest investment per inhabitant are the Canary Islands (553) and the Murcia Region (499).
Data published by the Ministry indicate an upward trend in per capita health spending across Spain. According to the 2024 forecasts collected in the study The expenditure amounts to 2,146 euros per inhabitant, with the Basque Country being (3,081 euros) the highest spending region and Andalusia last (1,735 euros). The data does not yet reflect that in 2025, it abandoned the Red Lantern for the first time in decades, with the disbursement of 1,765 euros per person.
Andalusia abandons the red lantern in public spending
In contrast to the left’s dominant narrative, public health increasingly consumes a larger portion of budgets in Andalusia. This trend is also evident in the development published by the institution that defends the interests of the private sector. Per capita spending in the Andalusian public system has risen by approximately 63% since 2013Last year (until September), he assumed the position of Minister of Health María Jesús Montero, current Regional Secretary of the Socialist Workers PartyFirst Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance. In 2013, when cuts began to be implemented prompted by the previous economic crisis, The Andalusian Executive Director of the Socialist Workers Party spent 1,065 euros per resident, According to the private institution mentioned above. In 2018, Susana Díaz’s last year, the amount reached €1,220, €515 less than the government of Juanma Moreno in 2024 (1,735).
As the “second in command” after Pedro Sanchez and a candidate for the presidency of the Andalusian Military Council in the elections scheduled for next spring, María Jesús Montero has made a direct connection to the screening crisis What he called the “dismantling” of public health in favor of private interests. During the government oversight session held in Congress on October 22, he declared the following: “If it was a specific mistake, why did they announce a profound restructuring of the Andalusian Health Service (SAS)? What model are they leading us to? Private insurance increased by 35% in Andalusia».
Data that refute Montero
The socialist leader did not specify the period in which this huge contracting of private insurance took place in Andalusia. But data Insurance Employers Association, UNESCOdo not support this statement. The number of Andalusians with a health policy reached 1,993,880 in 2024, which is 405,248 more than in 2018, 25.5% more. Even more striking is the hype around health insurance This was most evident between 2011 and 2018, when staffing increased by 29%, coinciding with the largest trimming of the public health budget.
The IDIS report also exposes the fact that agreements with private clinics have an increasing weight in the calculations of the Andalusian government. In 2023, according to the latest data collected in this study, society allocated 594 million euros, i.e. 4.2% of public health spending, to contracts with companies to reduce waiting lists, tests (such as dialysis) or health transportation. Catalonia, ruled until August 2024 by the left-wing independence party ERC (Parliamentary Partner of Pedro Sanchez), allocated 3489 million and 21.9%, almost double what Madrid allocated (1409 million and 11.8%).
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