Palma.The growth in the number of applications to be treated on the regional national health service IB-Salut has apparently grown to such an extent over the past three years, that it clear there is a preference from both Spaniards and foreigners to opt for the public health system rather than private alternatives, government figures revealed .
The trend has kept up in 2011 said a spokesman for IB-Salut, confirming that up until August this year, there were 1'034'398 Balearic health cards being used in the region, 825'104 by Spaniards and the rest by foreigners.
Origins
The majority of regional health cards afforded to foreigners belong to people from Latin America. In 2010, registers showed that there were 93'936 people from Latin American countries with an IB-Salut health card and 63'398 people from European Union countries. A total of 28'224 people with IB-Salut cards come from the Magreb and 9'800 from the Subsahara.
In 2010, the amount of cardholders increased by 1.87 percent in comparison with 2009. The number of foreigners with IB-Salut cards increased during the same period by 4.67 percent and by 4.51% amongst the Spanish community.
Meanwhile, along with Madrid and Catalonia, the Balearics is one of the three regions of Spain with the highest percentage of the population subscribing to private health insurance.
According to the Institute for Healthcare Development, around 25 percent of the population of these regions does not need to wait in the public health queue to get treatment.
But the Institute said that in the regions where there is high private healthcare dependence, less is invested in public health systems.
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