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The President of the Republic decided not to enact the Parliamentary bill which revoked the rules that created and determined the value of compensation rates for access to hospitalization or surgical acts for out-patients.
Regarding this decision, the Presidency of the Republic publishes the following communiqué:
1 – The President of the Republic decided today not to enact as law Parliamentary Decree No. 1/XL, which revoked the rules that created and determined the value of the compensation for access to hospitalization or surgical acts for out-patients
2 – Concerning this issue, two bills were issued, one from Parliament and another by the Government, the latter having been received first in the Presidency of the Republic and enacted by the President of the Republic on 4 December.
3 – Both bills are absolutely identical, the only difference being the date of entry into force.
Thus, while the Government’s decree-law establishes a precise date for its entry into force – 1 January 2010 – the Parliamentary bill, through a complex formula, remits its entry into force to an uncertain date, that of the approval of the State Budget or subsequent budgetary laws.
4 – 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.
5 – Summarizing, considering factors of certainty and security of Law and the need to respect the users of the National Health Service, the President of the Republic decided not to enact Parliamentary decree No. 1/XL, equally considering that it would not be salutary for the quality of our democracy that, for purely political reasons, an anomalous situation had been created in which two legislative procedures, leading to the issue of bills with fully identical contents, should run in parallel, it being certain that both sovereign bodies, Government and Parliament, were reciprocally aware of the initiatives being taken in the matter at issue.
© 2006-2016 Presidency of the Portuguese Republic
You have gained access to the records of the Official Site of the Presidency of the Republic from 9 March 2006 to 9 March 2016.
The contents available here were entered in the site during the 10 year period covering the two mandates of President of the Republic Aníbal Cavaco Silva.
