Government gives ground and offers 33.5% more for Muface

Muface: Government raises premium by 33.5% to save the scheme

How much is the State willing to pay so that 1.5 million civil servants and retirees stay out of the public health system? The figure has just landed on the table: a 33.5% premium increase for insurers spread over three years. The Ministerio de Función Pública is launching a new tender that is far more generous than the one it put on the table in November. Minister and government spokesperson Pilar Alegría confirmed after the Consejo de Ministros that the tender will go out before the end of the year. Quick translation: the scheme is saved, but it comes at a much higher price.

What changes in Muface's new tender

The text went through the committee of undersecretaries and its content is already circulating among those affected. The proposal raises the premium by 33.5% to be paid to insurers over three years, within a scheme covering the 2025-2027 period. It is no longer a corridor promise: the Consejo de Ministros authorised on 17 December the tender for national healthcare schemes and for mutual members abroad, and the call was published on the Plataforma de Contratación del Sector Público, within the contracting profile of the Dirección General de MUFACE. The mutual society itself informed its members along with the link to the document.

Why is the Government giving ground now?

The name that appears in all internal speculation is that of Óscar López, Minister of Función Pública, who wants to put out the fire with civil servants before leaving to run against Ayuso in Madrid. The most repeated reading: better to sign an expensive scheme than to open a front with a group that votes and that, adding retirees and family members, moves a not insignificant pool of votes.

Some sum up the situation with a painful line: passing a public-sector entrance exam today is like being born a noble in the Middle Ages. Exaggerated or not, the joke captures well the sense of protection surrounding public employment, and also the envy it drags with it. Another part of the analysis looks at the coalition's junior partner, which is credited with playing bad cop for weeks, arguing that mutual members should be integrated into the public health system, and which now finds itself without a narrative and without a flag.

Who pays for the premium increase

This is where the real problem begins. The increase will be financed with taxes, with more debt or with both, depending on which version you prefer, and the ECB appears in all the speculation as the ultimate source of the money. At the same time, VAT applied to private health insurance policies has fattened tax revenues, and some argue that this money is already being used to pay for the civil servants' scheme. In the same grievance narrative, some recall that self-employed workers are still repaying ELbichito-era benefits.

A figure also appears in the debate to size up the whole: 30 billion, equivalent to about 20 years of contributions to MUFACE, according to one participant's calculation. With that order of magnitude on the table, the old proposal to extend the model to everyone —letting self-employed workers and salaried employees manage their healthcare through a mutual insurer if they prefer— is gaining supporters.

Will Adeslas, Asisa and DKV stay in Muface?

The tender is published, but the film is not over. Adeslas and Asisa are still not sure whether they will take part in the new scheme, and the CSIF union federation maintains its threat of strikes until the matter is truly closed. The plan B under consideration is that the public health system could take on mutual members, 2.4% more of the population.

For now there is one confirmed number, 33.5%, and no signature. Raising the price to save a scheme that may still be left without anyone to provide it has its irony: the party is still standing, although no one has yet said who will pay for it in the end.