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Mister Speaker

Excellency,

Having received, to be enacted in law, Parliamentary Decree No. 1/XL, which revokes article No. 148 of Law No. 53-A/2006, dated 29 December, «State Budget for 2007», which creates compensation rates for access to hospitalization and for surgical acts for out-patients, and revokes article No. 160 of Law No. 64-A/2008, dated 31 December, «State Budget for 2009», which alters the value of the compensation rate for surgical acts for our-patients, I have decided, in the terms of article 136 of the Constitution of the Republic, not to enact the said bill, based upon the following:

1 – On 20 November of this year, the Presidency of the Republic received, in order to be enacted as a decree-law, the decree registered in the Presidency of the Council of Ministers under No. DL 8/09 – MS, which had been approved by the Council of Ministers on 19 November.

2 – This bill, which revoked two rules regarding the introduction of compensation rates for access to health care in hospitalization and surgical act for out-patients, was enacted by the President of the Republic on 4 December.

3 – Meanwhile, Parliament had generally approved, in plenary session held on 20 November, three legislative drafts presented by three parliamentary groups, which were submitted to the Health Committee for the purpose of voting and speciality discussion.

4 – At the meeting of the Parliamentary Health Committee, held on 25 November, a replacement text subscribed by the Members of the three parliamentary groups which had submitted the above referred draft laws was discussed and approved. And, on 27 November, the bill was submitted for final appreciation and approved by majority vote.

5 – Following this approval, the Presidency of the Republic received, on 17 December, Parliamentary decree No. 1/XI, which revoked the compensation rates for hospitalization and surgical acts for out-patients, that is, with an absolutely identical object as that of the Governmental bill which had been enacted by the President of the Republic 13 days previously.

6 – The Governmental bill had thus been approved on 19 November, prior to the plenary Parliamentary debate of the draft laws submitted by the parliamentary groups.

7 – Upon analysing the contents of the bills in question – the Governmental decree-law, on the one hand and, on the other, the Parliamentary law – the only difference encountered in both bills was the date of entry into force.

The Governmental bill leaves no doubt that, as from 1 January 2010, the users of the National Health Service will not be obliged to pay compensation taxes in the cases of hospitalization and of surgical acts performed on out-patients.

The Parliamentary bill, however, establishing as the date of coming into force the «approval of the State Budget Law or the law altering the budget subsequent to its publication», remits to an indefinite date – or one which at the moment cannot be established – the date from which the users of the National Health Service will no further be obliged to pay compensation rates.

8 – As such, should both bills be enacted, two legislative acts would coexist, covering the same issue and with the same exact reach, but with different dates for coming into force, which would introduce in our legislation a factor of juridical uncertainty and insecurity, clearly prejudicing the users of the National Health Service.

9 – In addition, it seems abnormal that the entry into force of the Parliamentary bill is made to depend upon the approval of budgetary laws, as if the moment for the approval of a bill were the definitive term of the legislative procedure, that is, as if in this procedure no other bodies would be required to intervene in order that legislation should enter into force in our legal system.

10 – As such, I have decided not to enact Parliamentary decree No. 1/XL.

11 – This decision is based upon motives of certainty of Law and of respect for the people to whom the legislation applies, whose expectations cannot be subject to such insecurity, nor can they become, in the ultimate instance, the sole and final victims of legislative procedures which, solely for reasons of political competition, run in parallel, it being certain that both sovereign bodies, Government and Parliament, were reciprocally aware of the current initiatives over the issue.

12 – In addition, I consider that it is not salutary for the quality of our democracy and for the prestige of the institutions that, due to purely political motivations, the Portuguese legal system in its internal coherence and harmony is prejudiced and, above all, the people which require the medical assistance of the National Health Service.
With highest regards,

Palace of Belém, 23 December 2009

THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC

Aníbal Cavaco Silva