In its last days in office, the previous government ordered the suspension of the measure set out in the order with the new rules for the National User Register, which determined that Portuguese people with tax residency abroad would have their registration “inactive”.
Nelson Magalhães, vice-president of USF-AN (Unidade de Saúde Familiar – Associação Nacional), told Lusa that the decision was sent to the units via an email from the Central Administration of the Health System (ACSS), dated March 30.
The order in question (no. 1668/2023) “defines the organizational rules and management mechanisms relating to the National User Register (RNU), as well as the rules for registering citizens with the SNS [National Health Service] and for enrolling in primary health care”.
The new rules stipulated that Portuguese nationals with tax residency abroad would have their registration “inactive”, even those attending services.
The news of this alleged alienation of Portuguese emigrants from the SNS, published by Lusa on December 13 last year, provoked a strong reaction from Portuguese communities abroad and stirred up political and party circles, culminating in the hearing of the then Minister of Health, Manuel Pizarro, in the Parliamentary Health Committee on January 10 this year.
At the hearing, Social Democrat MP Miguel Santos said that one of the PSD’s first measures, if it were the government, would be to revoke the order.
According to Nelson Magalhães, the application of the order was postponed several times, with a deadline of March 31, but the day before it was announced that the process of implementing the RNU Registration typology, which was scheduled for the end of March and which classified registrations as “active”, “transitory” or “inactive”, had been suspended “by a higher decision” until “a date to be defined in due course”.
Thus, Portuguese residents abroad will continue to have the same access to services as those living in the country, i.e. full access for those who have had contact with the system in the last five years.
The completion of data from the RNU continues, particularly on records registered with primary health care, continuing the work that the units have been doing.
Following the order, the previous government guaranteed that the SNS would cover the cost of care for Portuguese emigrants, whenever the Portuguese state was unable to collect it from entities such as insurance companies or social protection systems for these citizens. Nevertheless, it chose to suspend the measure.
