Comunidad Valenciana reinstates healthcare for illegal migrants
Thursday, July 16, 2015 @ 7:27 PM
NEW regional Parliament members in Valencia have overridden the national government and reinstated healthcare for all residents, irrespective of their immigration status.
Until now, over 30,000 illegal migrants had been left without access to healthcare and, as most did not have the money to pay for it, their lives and quality of life were at risk.
Health boss for the three provinces of Alicante, Valencia and Castellón, Carmen Montón, says steps are in place to return SIP cards to all those who have had them confiscated since September 2012 when former central government minister Ana Mato announced non-documented foreigners would need to fund their own treatment.
Sra Montón said her team, a coalition of the socialists, eco-nationalists Compromís, and independents Podemos, was in the process of 'ending the exclusive and abusive' system put in place by the central government and which 'deprived humans of their rights'.
At the next Inter-Territorial Healthcare Council meeting, Montón says her regional government will formally request the decree restricting medical treatment be abolished.
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