The health agenda of 2026: Statute, drugs and tobacco

The Ministry of Health faces the new year with several open fronts, starting with the protests of medical unions against the draft Framework Statute that the minister Monica Garcia seeks to approve, just as it intends with other pending regulations, such as the medicine law or the reform of the anti-smoking law, for which it must seek parliamentary support in a climate of uncertainty and political tension.

After the rejection of the State Confederation of Medical Unions (CESM), the Andalusian Medical Union (SMA) and the Group for a Medical and Faculty Statute (APEMYF) to the latest text of the Framework Statute, which was approved by other unions involved, 2026 will start with new days of medical strike and mobilizationsaccording to the organizations’ forecasts.

Health has been negotiating for three years to update the Framework Statute, a law that regulates the working conditions of health personnel in the National Health System (SNS) and that has not been touched since 2003. The minister has repeatedly expressed her intention to take it to the Council of Ministers and, later, to the Congress of Deputies.

“I need this law to reach the Congress of Deputies”stood out at the end of July, pointing out that he wanted it to happen in this legislature.

If Health manages to obtain union support and take the Statute to the Cortes, it will also have to establish consensus there, another challenge taking into account the context of parliamentary fragmentation and the precedents experienced. In 2025the Law to create the State Public Health Agency (AESAP), the only one brought to the Lower House by this ministry, was rejected in a first vote.

Medications, tobacco and patients

The Ministry of Health will have to overcome this environment to close other key projects, such as the Law on Medicines and Health Productswhose preliminary draft was approved by the Council of Ministers last April.

The draft text included proposals to allow nurses and physical therapists prescribe drugs within its powers, allowing pharmacists to substitute a prescribed medication in case of shortage, and a change in the reference pricing system to promote competitiveness.

However, this text received about 400 allegations in its public hearing phase and Health confirmed changes to improve the parts that generated “some conflict.” Along with this law, pending Royal Decree on the Price and Financing of Medicines and the Royal Decree on the Assessment of Health Technologies.

Furthermore, Health must move forward to convert other commitments and drafts into effective standards. Among them, the anti-smoking law, which seeks to expand smoke-free spaces and equate electronic cigarettes with traditional tobacco, and the Bill to prevent the consumption of alcoholic beverages and their effects on minors.

“Let’s hope that the different parliamentary groups prioritize the health of citizens, prioritize scientific evidence and are as ambitious as we are in the Ministry of Health,” he commented. Garcia in July on the reform of the Tobacco Law.

To these is added the Patient Organizations Lawone of the elements that would mark the second half of the legislature, in the words of the Secretary of State for Health, Javier Padilla. This regulation will define a legal framework for patient associations and will promote their participation in the development of public policies that affect them.

In the new year, the headquarters of the State Public Health Agency (AESAP) will see the light of day, an organization that will work to strengthen the country’s capabilities to improve the health of the population, health equity, and protect citizens against health threats, such as the Covid-19 pandemic. Health’s objective is for the agency to be “fully operational” in the first half of 2026.

Privatization and universality

Monica Garcia marked at the end of 2025 a priority for the beginning of the new year: Public Management and Integrity Law of the SNS, with which the Law 15/1997 and public-private collaboration in healthcare will be limited. At the same time, he recalled that his department is working on a Royal Decree to reduce waiting lists, one of the commitments contemplated in the Government agreement between PSOE and Sumar.

It is also pending to complete the approval of the Law of Universality of the SNS, which the Council of Ministers sent to Congress in May 2024. Its objective is to recover the right to health care under equal conditions for Spanish people residing abroad, for foreigners who come for family reunification and for any person residing in Spain regardless of their administrative status through the review of the Law 16/2003of May 28, on cohesion and quality of the SNS.

In parallel, the minister will continue working with the autonomous communities in the Interterritorial Council of the National Health System (CISNS), a scenario where she has achieved “more than 70 agreements” since he assumed the portfolio, but in which there have also been conflicts with the departments of the Popular Party.

This will continue to be one of the focuses of the health policy agenda in the new year, as disputes remain open with the Community of Madrid over the creation of the registry of objectors and the collection of data from cancer screenings.