7 April is World Health Day. This year, the health crisis linked to the coronavirus is an opportunity for the Health and Solidarity Action Platform to highlight the structural problems experienced by health professionals and patients, and to raise this political question: what kind of healthcare system do we want for tomorrow?
Budget cuts in the health and welfare sector have taken a particularly severe turn in recent years. Successive governments have decided to lower the annual growth target for healthcare spending from 4.5% under the Verhofstadt government, to 3% under the Di Rupo government, and then 1.5% under the Michel government. If we add to this the net savings made in parallel, we obtain a budgetary reduction of 3 billion euros in healthcare over 5 years.
Healthcare professionals are denouncing the lack of human and financial resources, as well as a sector management excessively focused on budgetary objectives to the detriment of the healthcare mission. The number of protests, demonstrations and even strikes in recent months is ample proof of this. We also have to realise that health depends to a considerable extent on our collective lifestyles, our working conditions, our environment and our housing. These are all social determinants, which are also heavily influenced by social inequalities and gender inequalities in particular.
Europe's liberal vision is damaging health
If the above observation is similar in all European countries, it is because they are subject to the same influence of neo-liberal doctrine and to the primacy of economic objectives, which is embodied in the following two mechanisms in particular:
1. The European Semester is designed to monitor strict compliance with national budgetary discipline. A State that deviates from the budgetary path mapped out is obliged to make cuts in its spending, particularly on healthcare. This is a sector that falls within the exclusive remit of the Member States.
2. European accounting rules (ESA2010) now prohibit public administrations (including hospitals) from spreading the repayment of a loan over time. This is putting a strain on national finances and preventing them from making new public investments from which healthcare should benefit.
Add to this the social dumping and tax evasion and competition practised in Europe, and you have a European recipe for the commercialisation of healthcare:
1. drain budgets (austerity, tax evasion and competition) ;
2. prevent public investment (SEC2010) ;
3. allow commercial operators to penetrate the healthcare «market» in the name of the sacrosanct principle of «free competition».
Covid-19, the revealer the drift of healthcare policies!
Will the coronavirus help to awaken public opinion and force a profound change in the hierarchy of our values and political priorities? The network we represent is demanding a clear break with austerity and the commercialisation of healthcare. We are calling for a genuine public health policy with a long-term vision.
To this end, we are calling on Belgian and European political decision-makers to create a solid European «public health» system with adequate, solidarity-based, high-quality funding that is accessible to the entire population. This system must be financed by public resources to provide a comprehensive and universal response to health needs. It must also be based on solidarity within the population and between European countries, rather than on the private interests of shareholders or for-profit providers.
In addition, we are calling on European countries to adopt a more determined strategy for negotiating the prices of new drugs and medical equipment. Research must also be funded more by the public sector, which would make it possible to limit patent rights and reduce the price of pharmaceutical specialities.
The EU must become a genuine political entity responsible for organising social solidarity and cooperation between Member States to a greater extent than it does today, particularly in the face of health crises.
Action 7 April
On 7 April, World Health Day, we are calling on health professionals, associations and the general public to get involved in the Day of Action against the Commercialisation of Health.
Concentration is impossible this year, this Tuesday 7 April 2020 will be a white sheet« action! What is it all about?
1. Hang your messages on a white sheet in a visible place or make a sign at home.
2. Take a photo of yourself with your messages.
3. Share them:
- on social networks with the hashtag #health4all and/or 1TP5Healthforall and send it to your political leaders
- on the interactive map here bit.ly/Agir4Health
Applaud? Yes, but let us cut spending? NO!
Carte blanche from Health and Solidarity Action Platform, An initiative of the two major trade unions, various networks and associations, NGOs and university representatives.
Members : Africa Faith And Justice Network (Belgian branch), Artsen Zonder Vakantie - Medics Without Vacation, Atelier santé de Charleroi, Attac Bruxelles 2, Autisme en Action, Belgian Anti-Poverty Network (BAPN), Centre Bruxellois de Coordination Sociopolitique, Centre Bruxellois de Promotion de la santé, Centre de Défense et d'actions pour la santé des travailleurs - C-DAST, Centrale Générale FGTB - Algemene Centrale ABVV, Centrale Nationale des Employés (CNE), Centrale Générale Services Publics BXL ALR/ CGSP Brussel LRB, Centre Tricontinental, CSC Services Publics, Cultures & Santé, Dentisterie sociale, Ella vzw (Kenniscentrum gender en etniciteit), Famille Du Monde, Fédération Générale du Travail de Belgique - Algemeen Belgisch Vakverbond, Fédération des Maisons Médicales, Fédération des Associations Sociales et de Santé, Fédération des Services Sociaux, Femmes et Santé, Fonds Social Intersectoriel Bruxellois, Free Clinic, GAMP, Geneeskunde voor het Volk - Medecine pour le Peuple, Inforautisme asbl, Landelijke Bediendencentrale - Nationaal Verbond voor Kaderleden (PULS), Le Monde Selon les Femmes, Les Pissenlits, Ligue des Usagers des Services de Santé (LUSS), Links Ecologisch Forum - Forum Gauche Ecologie (LEF-FGE), Médecin du Monde - Dokters van de Wereld, Memisa, Mouvement Ouvrier Chrétien (MOC), Pour la Solidarité, Projet Lama Asbl, Santé Communauté Participation, SOLENTRA, Syndicat des Employés, Techniciens et Cadres - Bond van Bedienden Technici en Kaderleden (SETCA-BBTK), Théâtre du Copion, Union Nationale des Mutualités Socialistes, Vereniging Wijkgezondheidscentra (VWGC), Viva Salud, Christian Darras, Françoise Mambourg, Isabelle Heymans, Jacques Morel, Jean-Marie Leonard, Jean-Pierre Unger, Julie Maenaut, Louis Ferrant
