The pandemic erupted as a tsunami in the economy from which it is still struggling to recover. Almost two years later, Spain is still trying to reverse a record drop of 11% in the START and declines in employment that have caused millions in bills for the Social Security, entering the highest red numbers in its history. Almost 24 months of Covid leaves numbers that are difficult for the system to digest, such as those derived from sick leave, which delve into its already deteriorated accounts.
In 2020, 4.7 million casualties were processed due to common contingencies, a figure that will rise to almost 5.4 million in the year that has just ended, with a cost for Social Security of 9.5 billion, a very similar figure
to which the organism that pays the pensions had to face a year before. Of that amount, companies – pay the economic benefit enjoyed from the 4th and 15th day by the worker – will have to face 7,850 million. To these withdrawal processes in 2021 must be added the absences from work due to temporary disability due to Covid, which amounted to 2,688,256 and its cost to 1,500 million. A year earlier the casualties were somewhat less, 2,463,656 and its cost 1,712 million. That is In two years of the pandemic, the system processed 15,237,115 casualties, of which more than five million were due to Covid, with a total cost for Social Security of 22,310 million, according to the forecasts made by the Association of Mutual Accidents at Work (AMAT) in a report that ABC has had access to.
This escalation in spending has set off all the alarms among companies, which continue to try to recover from the blow of the pandemic and the strong footprint it is leaving on their balance sheets, at a time, in addition, in which they are facing a spiral of costs due to the tax increase and the inflationary outbreak, caused, above all, by the rise in energy prices. The rearmament of viruses, mutated into various variants, does not give respite to the business fabric in Spain, hostage to the limitations imposed in some regions and the pressure and added cost associated with absences from work. Only last December, Ómicron’s progress caused 566,175 workers to be off work due to Covid, 632% more than in November.
The shadow of abuse hangs over the avalanche of absences from work taking into account the lack of controls by the Management in a scenario that puts pressure on productivity and, ultimately, on the economy. Last week the organizations that make up the food and mass consumption value chain conveyed to the Government their concern about the situation generated by the management of sick leave and demanded measures that “prevent the lack of personnel from affecting the proper functioning of the productive system ». The bosses warned in a statement that the increase in the loss of workers registered in companies in the sector represents “a great administrative problem given the difficulties they encounter in obtaining medical discharge, due to the congestion suffered by primary care.”
Telephone service
According to their data, one in seven of the workers who are on leave at this time could rejoin immediately, but they do not do so as they do not get medical authorization. He explained that the decision made by some regions to grant phone cancellations based on self-test of antigens it is assuming an added problem of management of discharges, which, remember, must be obtained in person at health centers.
One of the consequences that the health crisis has caused is the alteration of the normal functioning of the medical units of the provincial directorates of the National Institute of Social Security, which has led to an increase in the average duration of the processes of IT with the corresponding growth in the cost of the provision for the system. On average, the withdrawal processes lasted 53.29 days in 2020, a figure that increased to 53.66 days in 2021, according to the forecasts of the mutuals.
The explosion of infections is leading to the collapse of primary care centers, where doctors, despite efforts to reorganize the available resources, are forced to provide health care and increased dedication to the management of the cancellation and registration procedures that have occurred since the appearance of Ómicron, as reported by the mutuals, which are once again offered to the Administration to alleviate the workload and collaborate with the public services at a time of system collapse.
High and low in one act
These collaborating organizations of the Social Security have approached the Administration to alleviate those “bottlenecks” that are being produced by the Covid and to suggest that this health collapse could and “should” be moderated by setting up a mechanism at the national level whereby public health practitioners simultaneously process discharge and discharge reports in a single medical act, lasting seven days, so that only those workers who had not recovered within that established period would have to contact the health center again. In the opinion of mutual insurance companies, this mechanism would reduce by almost half the time that physicians have to dedicate to these administrative procedures, “with the benefit that this would have in the decongestion of primary care, which could thus dedicate many more resources to care health ”, they point out.
Deficit for the system
The mutuals offer, therefore, to participate in the entire process, at a time that is also very delicate for their finance. Since 2015 they have dragged a deficit which reached its highest peak in the first year of the pandemic, a year in which they closed with the red numbers at 2,163.54 million euros, a figure that will fall to 1,625 million in 2021, according to their estimates despite receiving extra funding in December for the management of casualties in 2021.
They recall that this deficit is transferred to the State accounts and that, therefore, “the objective should be to save unnecessary expenses in this benefit, not only that the mutuals are adequately financed to manage it, since not having savings, companies and Social Security and the State, in the last instance, will be the ones that end up bearing these unnecessary expenses. This situation “does not help the sustainability of pensions, or the competitiveness of our companies” they conclude.
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George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism