Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 380 Healthcare Act
The Boer War finally ended after a year and a half, and Carlow had long anticipated that Britain would not allow the war to drag on any longer.

The Boers were, in the end, a people of only four or five hundred thousand. The difficulty for them to defy fate was extremely high, and it could even be said to be wishful thinking.

The fact that they were able to hold out for a year and a half was not only due to their own strong will to resist, but also because the support from European countries played a crucial role.

The Boer War lasted two and a half years mainly because after the British completely occupied the two Boer countries, the Boer resistance against the British government and the corresponding guerrilla warfare were also taken into account.

If we calculate it this way, the current Boer War will definitely take longer than in history.

Because the Boers in this world harbor a deeper hatred for the British, if Britain wants to resolve this Boer problem, it will need to deploy a large number of troops to the Transvaal and Orange regions to completely eliminate these resolute resistance fighters.

Historically, even after winning the Boer War, Britain still had to maintain a garrison of over 20 troops to ensure that the region would not be reoccupied by the Boers.

These garrison troops also represent a significant military expenditure, which means that although the Boer War has ended, Britain still has to spend a lot of money, manpower, and resources every year to fight against the Boers.

This is good news for Spain and other European countries. Whether the British government likes it or not, they have to mobilize a large number of troops and spend a lot of military budget in order to suppress the Boers in South Africa.

The end of the Boer War did not cause Carlo to pay much attention to the situation in South Africa, because in 1896, the Spanish medical sector was about to make a major move.

"Your Majesty, this is a medical security plan that we have developed over the past six months, taking into account the relevant social security regulations of various European countries and combining them with our national conditions," said Health Minister Valentino Hernandez, handing Carlo a copy of the medical insurance bill with great respect.

The main content of this bill is the medical insurance regulations related to workers. The reason for enacting such a plan is, in fact, a necessary but unfortunate choice in the face of social development.

Spain's reforms and five-year development plans have effectively boosted industrial development and increased the number of workers in Spain to several million.

Although the government has introduced some laws to protect workers' rights, the essence of this era is that capitalists oppress workers, and Spain cannot change the nature of this era.

Workers are already a high-income group, which is extremely attractive to those with lower incomes in Spain. With the establishment of technical schools in Spain, a large number of people become skilled workers every year through technical schools or other means, joining the large working class.

The influx of workers into the industry has intensified competition among them. This has given factory owners more options, forcing workers to agree to overtime demands in order to keep their jobs.

The Spanish government has repeatedly emphasized this issue, with various requirements regarding overtime hours and overtime pay. If a worker is injured while working overtime, the factory is not only required to provide medical treatment but also to offer compensation.

While such policies have protected workers' interests to some extent, as the saying goes, "where there's a policy, there's a countermeasure," and it is simply impossible to fully protect workers' interests in this era.

Capitalists have numerous means to force workers to work overtime for free. If workers refuse, capitalists can simply choose to dismiss them.

This is not the future, where dismissing an employee requires much more compensation. In this era, dismissing an employee doesn't require much compensation; simply paying the worker's wages for the previous hours is sufficient.

There have been several incidents where workers were injured due to being distracted by long hours of overtime work.

Although, under government oversight and pressure from the Workers' Party, these factories where accidents occurred have compensated their workers.

However, it is clear that these compensations are a drop in the ocean compared to the workers' losses. If someone is unfortunately disabled as a result, even if they recover from their injuries, they will likely find it difficult to find work in the future.

This is a huge blow to the workers' families. If the breadwinner of the family can't find a job, it means that the family will not be able to earn enough income for a long time to come.

In response to this situation, Carlo had already ordered the medical department last year to explore relevant legislation and, referring to the handling methods of various European countries, to provide certain guarantees for workers' medical issues.

With a more comprehensive medical security system, even if workers suffer any accidents during work, they can recover from their injuries through the medical security system and use the factory's compensation to support themselves, instead of relying on the factory's compensation to pay for their medical treatment and then living in poverty for the rest of their lives.

Carlo picked up the healthcare bill and began to read it carefully.

First and foremost, it must be clear that the medical security system of this era was certainly not as comprehensive as that of later generations.

In order to get factory owners to agree to pay a portion of the workers' medical insurance premiums, the medical department reduced the percentage paid by factories to 30%, with the remaining 70% to be paid by the workers themselves.

There's no other way. If factories were to bear the majority of the medical insurance costs, it would significantly increase their labor costs.

This will make the situation even more precarious for smaller factories. It's no longer a question of whether factory owners are willing to pay for health insurance; it's a question of whether these small factories can survive after this law is enacted.

For workers, although they have to pay 70% of their medical insurance premiums themselves, at least this gives them peace of mind.

If nothing unexpected happens during work, all is well. Even if something does happen, the medical insurance payout will be enough to help your family get through the most difficult time.

While this may not be the optimal choice, such a bill would be effective in improving the situation of workers in Spain at present.

"Regarding the payment of medical insurance funds, what kind of oversight does the medical department intend to take?" Carlo did not rush to nod in agreement with the bill, but instead asked about the issues that concerned him.

While this bill appears to improve the current healthcare situation for workers, the issue of Medicare contributions remains a top priority.

First, it depends on whether the workers are willing to pay this medical insurance premium, and second, it depends on whether the factory owners will delay paying the workers' medical insurance premium.

For factory owners, they will delay as long as they can.

In this era, the various policies and procedures are not complete. If there are cases where factory owners promise to pay a deposit but ultimately delay or fail to pay it under various pretexts, wouldn't that mean that this law will eventually become ineffective?

Upon hearing Carlo's inquiry, Health Minister Valentino Hernandez replied very respectfully, "Your Majesty, we intend to establish a special health insurance department to supervise and manage the payment of health insurance premiums."

If a discrepancy is found between the number of employees and the amount of medical insurance contributions paid at a factory, the department can handle the situation promptly.

Carlo nodded and said, "From this perspective, the department that oversees the payment of medical insurance funds needs to involve several aspects. How about this, this department will be affiliated with the Ministry of Health, but will be jointly supervised by the Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of People's Livelihood, and the Ministry of Health."

The bill's intentions are good, and I hope it will effectively improve workers' healthcare situation so they don't have to worry about their future while they're at work.

“Yes, Your Majesty.” Valentino Hernandez understood, of course, that such a regulatory body could not be controlled solely by the medical department.

Since it involves contacting various factories, support from the industrial sector is definitely needed. Healthcare is also closely related to people's livelihoods; only through cooperation among several departments can this bill be effectively implemented.

"How much funding would we need to fully implement this bill?" Carlo continued to inquire.

This type of healthcare system is certainly not intended to make money. To protect Spain's millions of workers, the government must allocate sufficient funds.

When it comes to funding, careful consideration is still necessary. Spain is no longer what it used to be; with a powerful navy, its military spending has been steadily increasing.

In this situation, in order to avoid fiscal stimulus, various departments can only save on fiscal budgets as much as possible.

If implementing this bill requires too much fiscal budget, Carlo can only consider piloting it in certain regions or temporarily delaying its implementation. "Your Majesty, we have considered cooperating with several major domestic insurance companies. Cooperating with these companies could effectively reduce our fiscal budget expenditures."

Assuming all workers nationwide have health insurance, and based on the current probability of factory accidents, our annual expenditure would be approximately 1500 million pesetas.

Carlo nodded; such expenses were still within an acceptable range.

"Domestic insurance companies are profit-driven after all. I don't rule out cooperating with them, but we should do a good job of supervision."

I don't want our workers to work hard to buy medical insurance premiums only to have the insurance company refuse to pay them out after they get injured.

This is particularly important to note. As long as the compensation conditions are met, both government insurance companies and private companies should unconditionally pay medical expenses to workers.

"When collaborating with domestic insurance companies, this point must be made clear to them. The government doesn't object to them making money, but they also need to do something while making money," Carlo instructed.

While partnering with insurance companies can effectively reduce government spending, Carlo is quite aware of the tactics employed by these companies.

By refusing to pay out claims, insurance companies can reduce a significant amount of expenses. While some of these cases do not meet the criteria for payment, a considerable number do meet the criteria, but insurance companies refuse to pay out using various means and excuses.

Carlo didn't want the healthcare bill specifically for workers to benefit these insurance companies. He wanted to make the money he was supposed to make, but he also wanted to do the things that needed to be done.

“Yes, I understand, Your Majesty.” Health Minister Valentino Hernandez nodded solemnly, for he certainly understood the importance of regulating these insurance companies.

This is, after all, a project that benefits the people. But if these insurance companies take advantage of loopholes and become the ultimate beneficiaries, not only will the medical department's impending achievements be lost, but it may even put the medical department in a position of responsibility.

After all, the workers' discontent was no joke. Farmers' discontent was generally tolerated, which was one of the reasons why rule in European countries was relatively stable before the advent of the Industrial Age.

However, if discontent arises among the working class, they are highly likely to take to the streets in protest. Once large-scale protests erupt, there is a tendency for them to escalate into an armed uprising.

Valentino Hernandez dares not risk angering the working class. Moreover, the Workers' Party, whose platform and constitution guarantee worker interests, has become a significant political party in Spain.

If workers pay into medical insurance but cannot receive compensation, even without workers protesting, the Workers' Party's overwhelming anger would be unbearable for him.

After all, the Spanish lower house still has oversight power over the cabinet government. If a Workers' Party member were to initiate impeachment proceedings, even if things ultimately went smoothly, their political career would essentially be over.

The formation of the Workers' Party was also part of Carlo's plan, giving the working class a channel to express their political views.

Once workers realize that pushing MPs to introduce bills in the House of Commons is far more effective than marching, they will gradually abandon marching as a method of protest.

Carlos places great importance on the opinions of workers. Although there have been no impeachments of cabinet members by Workers' Party MPs so far, they have introduced several bills that benefit workers, some of which have already been formally passed in the House of Commons. This is why the Workers' Party enjoys widespread support among workers—because the Workers' Party is truly committed to getting things done.

Now that the bill has been confirmed as feasible, the most important thing next is to introduce it into the House of Commons and have the members vote on it.

Such a bill, which has already been predetermined to pass, will naturally not face any obstacles in the House of Commons.

The voting results were also obvious: the bill passed with over 75% of the votes, and its implementation proceeded smoothly.

After the bill was officially passed, the medical department contacted several large insurance companies in Spain.

These insurance companies are quite willing to cooperate with the healthcare sector. After all, health insurance covers the entire working class in Spain, which amounts to at least millions of people.

Even with strong government oversight, so-called medical insurance can still be very profitable.

After all, the accident rate in a factory cannot be too high. If the accident rate were too high, there would be no need for the factory to continue operating.

After all, an accident requires substantial compensation, which is a significant expense for factory owners.

Especially in larger factories, if an accident occurs, more than one worker may be injured.

To ensure that such a policy would not be met with resistance from the working class, the medical department decided to first pilot it in Madrid and Barcelona.

Madrid and Barcelona are also Spain's two largest industrial cities, with a combined workforce approaching one million.

It is essential to conduct pilot programs in these two cities, both to gauge the workers' attitudes toward the healthcare bill and to test whether the bill actually provides any real help to the workers.

The good news is that, thanks to the Spanish government's good reputation among the public, the bill has not been rejected by the working class.

After learning that they would need to pay 70% of their healthcare costs, the workers did hesitate. However, since factory owners also need to pay the remaining 30%, and this healthcare coverage is specifically for the workers themselves, with strong government oversight, it seems to have some credibility.

After the government promoted the program, many workers voluntarily purchased worker medical insurance offered by insurance companies.

When the medical department was promoting their services, they specifically emphasized which insurance companies were cooperating with the government.

The medical department even made a special promise that as long as medical insurance is purchased from insurance companies that cooperate with the government, the government can force the insurance companies to pay ten times the amount in compensation if these insurance companies refuse to pay in the future.

This did reassure some workers, as the Spanish government's promises were still effective at the time, and most workers were relatively at ease.

As for whether the factory owners will be dissatisfied, that's not something the Spanish government should consider.

While worker discontent may have some influence on the Spanish government, the influence of factory owners' departments is negligible.

Although factory owners are also capitalists, the power of these small and medium-sized capitalists cannot shake the power of Spain, which is implementing state capitalism.

Neither the capital owned by the Spanish government nor the capital owned by the royal family could be contended with by these small factory owners.

In fact, the factories owned by the Spanish government and the royal family are the largest in Spain. With the government and the royal family taking the lead in paying for workers' medical insurance, what courage do the remaining small and medium-sized factories have to resist government policies?

The government is the government, and capitalists are capitalists. Trying to use the power of capitalists to oppose the government is not feasible in the current Spanish context.

Capitalists' tactics for resisting the government were nothing more than inciting workers to protest. But the problem was that the Spanish workers at this time knew that the healthcare bill was for their own benefit, and they naturally wouldn't obey the capitalists' orders to launch related protests.

Furthermore, the Workers' Party has become one of the options for workers to express their views. If capitalists really dare to incite workers to march, they will probably be hung on street lamps the next day.

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(End of this chapter)