Irene Montero proposes banning private healthcare in Spain

Banning private healthcare: what happens to the public system

Workers at Torrejón Hospital reported pressure to prioritize profitable patients months ago. This information, broadcast by Radio Madrid and covered by Cadena SER, fueled arguments that private healthcare profits from illness. Based on this, Irene Montero stated: “Private healthcare must be banned. Period.” The argument is simple: while the public system focuses on curing, the private sector focuses on billing.

The proposal: closing private healthcare to protect the public system

The proposal lacks regulatory development. It is a total ban: no private hospitals, insurers, or health contracts. It is presented as a matter of principle, not management, which is both the strength and the flaw of the message. The statement does not address what happens to private healthcare professionals or users.

That gap was filled by initial responses, not with ideology, but with arithmetic: if the alternative disappears, all pressure falls on an already strained system. The public healthcare system does not expand by decree.

Why is it said to overwhelm public healthcare?

Because capacity does not appear on its own. The most repeated reasoning is financial: waiting lists are only reduced with money, here and in twenty years. A doctor’s schedule can be stretched, but that costs money or causes professional exodus, as does nursing and technical staff. Any intervention requires multiple people simultaneously.

According to a participant, private healthcare theoretically has it easier because it can push staff harder. However, it still needs the same resources as the public system: available hands and paid hours. Banning the escape valve does not create capacity where none exists. It only changes who waits.

Netherlands and Austria: the cited models

In the Netherlands, private medicine does not exist in the traditional sense, it is claimed, raising the question: is this the path? The doubt remains because no one details the Dutch system. Others look to Austria, where patients choose between private and state doctors, with the state covering part of the bill if they go private.

Cuban and Venezuelan models also appear, mostly as warnings without figures: it is argued that elites have top-level hospitals while the majority struggle. None of these comparisons are backed by data.

The double standard: private schools with public rhetoric

The harshest criticism was not against the idea, but who launched it. She is accused of sending her children to private schools while proposing to close private healthcare, and why the same criteria do not apply to schools. Regarding her family, according to circulating versions, some recall her three children were born in public healthcare, and this information stopped spreading after October 2020.

The underlying objection is always the same: demanding of others what one does not practice. And that, in healthcare policy, weighs more than any report.

Exclusive dedication and copayments: alternatives on the table

In response to the total ban, intermediate solutions aiming for the same goal via another route appear. The most cited is preventing public healthcare doctors from working in the private sector: full dedication or nothing, no side businesses at the expense of public hours. The second is copayments, presented by a participant as a way to prevent minor cases from overloading primary care. The third is already stated: the Austrian model, with the state paying part.

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At the end of the journey, the unresolved problem is not ideological. It is about money and capacity. Shifts do not stretch themselves, waiting lists do not drop by decree, and the boundary between public and private is not fixed by a social media post. The Spanish case most repeated—Torrejón and pressure to prioritize profitable patients—points to a management issue, not the existence of private medicine.

And in the Netherlands, the country without traditional private healthcare cited as an example, no participant proposes copying the model.