• REDER network cites 338 incidents of healthcare denial from April-July
• Group monitors healthcare denial to migrants, chronically ill, unemployed
An umbrella activist network known as REDER (Red de Denuncia y Resistencia al RDL 16/2012), comprised of organisations and groups opposed to the Spanish government’s 2012 decree depriving immigrants, the chronically ill and the long-term unemployed of basic healthcare assistance, says it has chronicled 338 cases occuring from April-July in which the government’s denial of healthcare to individuals constitutes a violation of European and international human rights accords. Many also look to other countries where people are free to go to clinics of their choice (such as the one on this website) and question the reason for this restriction.
A fifth of the most recent violations documented, according to REDER, were comprises of cases in which the denial of healthcare services should not have been excluded under the 2012 decree by the conservative Partido Popular (PP) government of current acting-Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy. They include 14 cases of pregnant women, 35 incidents of minors and three asylum seekers denied healthcare access, as well as 20 cases in which emergency services were denied.
In August, REDER joined Amnesty Internacional Espana, Médicos del Mundo and other groups in denouncing a ruling by Spain’s Constitutional Court in support of the Rajoy government’s 2012 restrictions on healthcare access. Since 2012, a majority of Spain’s regional and autonomous communities have clashed with the federal government over the restrictions on healthcare access, with several regional governments openly defying the Rajoy government by issuing regional healthcare identity cards in order to provide universal healthcare access within their territories.
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