Health

Health care in Spain

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Health care access isn’t a right in the United States. But it is in many other countries… including Spain. Recently two Spanish towns began to chip away at that. They started by denying benefits to undocumented immigrants. The World’s Gerry Hadden reports from Vic, Spain.

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MARCO WERMAN:  I’m Marco Werman and this is The World.  It’s been downhill for health care reform since September.  That’s when you may recall a Senator shouted you lie, after President Obama said that the proposed legislation would not cover illegal immigrants.  Actually the President was right about that.  But many countries provide health care for everyone, including undocumented immigrants.  An example is Spain.  But recently, two Spanish towns began to deny health benefits to illegal immigrants.  The World’s Gerry Hadden sent us this report from one of the towns, Vick.

GERRY HADDEN:   In a small square in his northeastern city, a 26-year-old man sits on a bench.  His name is Adolpho and he wears a white wool hat and a big glass earring in one ear.  Adolpho came to Spain from Bolivia as a tourist, but stayed illegally to work in construction.  He’s got the flu, he says, but he can’t go to the doctor, at least not here in Vick because he’s not registered as a resident in City Hall.

ADOLPHO:  [in Spanish through an interpreter]  I tried to register, he said, but they asked me for my Visa and my passport.  I told them that Spain doesn’t require Bolivians to get Visas but they just turned me away.

HADDEN: For weeks, the city of Vick has been denying undocumented immigrants access to doctors and schools.  City officials argue that such immigrants are either unemployed or working under the table.  That means they’re not paying taxes, says Vick’s Mayor, Josette Vida.

JOSETTE VIDA:  [through interpreter]  Vick is trying to get it’s registry of immigrants in order, he said.  The more organized we are, the better we can integrate foreigners in our city.  That’s why we decided to take the existing immigration law and apply it.

mgm:  Actually, Mayor Vida’s interpretation of that law is what has stirred a national controversy.  Human rights groups and politicians of all stripes have been speaking out against Vick’s action.  Celestine Corbacho is Spain’s Minister for Labor and Immigration.

CELESTINE CORBACHO:  [through interpreter] According to the law, he says, access to services are a right that come before whatever local norm a city might create.  Therefore Vick cannot deny health care and education to non-Spaniards without papers.

HADDEN: And Vick’s been feeling the pressure.  Late last week city officials backed down.  Immigrants like Adolpho, will once again be allowed to get government funded medical care like other people in Vick.  But the Spanish residents of Vick say the problem isn’t going away.  Business woman Manoli Morales says the city can’t afford to subsidize people who sneak into the country.

MANOLI MORALES:  [through interpreter]  She says they have a right to come to Spain if they have papers.  If they don’t have permission, we should boot them right out.  You understand?

HADDEN: Morales’ attitude reflects the ongoing frustration in many small Spanish towns.  Vick was virtually all Spaniards before Spain’s housing boom 10 years ago.  Today, immigrants make up 26% of the population.  That radical demographic shift, combined with the economic crisis has given rise to a radical Nationalist Party here.  The Platform for Catalonia won four City Council seats in recent elections on an anti-immigrant platform.  While immigrants’ rights groups have been condemning Vick as xenophobic, some mainstream politicians have come to its defense, at least partially.  The President of the Catalon region of Spain, socialist Jose Montilla, says Vick’s solution was wrong, but it’s problem is real.  The huge influx of undocumented immigrants has put strains on Social Services.  Montilla says denying it is like burying your head in the sand.  In a recent interview he lamented that it’s become to politically incorrect to acknowledge that while immigrants have helped Spain, sometimes they can also be a burden.  Other politicians are now calling for Spain’s immigration law to be overhauled to correct a key contradiction.  On the local level, towns are obligated to offer undocumented workers social services, while the federal government is obligated to deport them.  For the time being, one other Spanish town, Torrejon in Madrid, is still refusing undocumented workers benefits.  If it continues, the federal government has threatened to take town officials to Court.  For The World, I’m Gerry Hadden, Vick, Spain.

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