Overview
- The national government put Article 39 into the 2027 budget that strips the Nomenclador Nacional de Discapacidad of its universal fee schedule and lets each obra social, prepaga or province set aranceles.
- The text says the national State’s fees would be set quarterly by the Secretaría Nacional de Discapacidad or, if it fails to act, by the Health Ministry using the consumer price index as a fallback.
- On Wednesday this inclusion triggered an intra-coalition break in Congress, with allied deputies saying they were surprised and calling for changes as commissions opened urgent debate on the budget and the emergency-prorogation bills.
- Providers, families and sector groups warned in hearings that canceling a unified arancel would intensify already large arrears, reported closures of about 50 centres, and likely widen regional and payer-based disparities in care and access to pensions.
- By contrast, Spain’s Congress on Wednesday approved a reform that broadens dependency and disability rights, guarantees teleassistance and personal assistance, links automatic disability recognition to dependency grades, and commits the State to cover 50% of dependency funding with an extra €6.2 billion.