The Public University of Álava, Gipuzkoa and Bizkaia promote private health insurance among their workers. The UPV/EHU is a public entity under government administration and its staff are public administration personnel.

8,844 workers and their families

As can be read on the UPV/EHU website, at the beginning of the 2023 year at the Public University, 5,745 workers and 1,936 were working as researchers or professors in the field of administrations and services. In total, 8,844 workers. The offer of the company IMQ is addressed to these public employees, according to the IMQ offer document for the staff of the UPV/EHU that has received ARGIA. Cleaning personnel or private police, for example, would be out of offer as outsourced personnel.

In addition to these thousands of workers, the offer is aimed at the whole “family unit of coexistence”. The document specifies that they may be: “Spouse or de facto partner; parents, children; parents, parents, children of the spouse or de facto partner; persons adopted or adopted permanently or pre-adoptively”. Tens of thousands of people.

Special discount

“In execution of the offer submitted by the Insurance Brokerage (AON IBERIA CORREBRISTOL-DE SEGUROS Y RESEGUROS, S.A.U. ), awarded the new insurance contract of the UPV/EHU, the Medical Surgical Institute IMQ makes available to the University’s workers the possibility of hiring their health insurance at lower prices.” This is indicated in the first paragraph of the message that employees received by email from the Vice Management of Heritage and Contracting of the UPV/EHU. Staff are informed that all necessary information is available on the UPV/EHU website.

Here is an image of the message received by the staff:

Public or private health?

The debate on public or private health is very present in the Basque Country in recent months and years, especially since the pandemic. Osakidetza staff and all trade unions have denounced cuts in public service on the street and linked government and health department policies for privatization purposes. One of the main demands of the Public Health Platforms created in several localities is to avoid the privatization of the service and to strengthen the public service, as they have done this weekend in the capital demonstrations.

The Government and the Health Advisor, Gotzone Sagardui, deny that privatization is being deepened or sought to deepen. On 8 November, lehendakari Urkullu took the floor at the celebration of the 40th anniversary of Osakidetza. “We are going to move forward step by step, but it will have to be with reasonable demands and without catastrophism,” he said, after defending Osakidetza as the “most precious treasure” of citizenship. Well, the promotion of private insurance among thousands of public workers by a public institution such as the UPV goes against this treasure and for the benefit of private companies.