“A health plan that is a complement to the National Health Service […]. The health plan is to say that all people in Lisbon who are over 65 years old can have access to a doctor”, said the mayor, Carlos Moedas (PSD), in the presentation to the press of the proposal, which has yet to be voted on at a meeting of the municipal executive.

Carlos Moedas said that the proposal aims to give “general access” to health care to the 130,000 Lisbon residents over 65 years of age, through a teleconsultation service available 24 hours a day, in which, in case of need, “the doctor can decide to go to the person's house”, as well as referrals for ambulance transport or home delivery of medicines.

The plan also intends to go “further” in supporting the 5,000 Lisbon residents who benefit from the solidarity supplement for the elderly, who will be able to have free access to optometry consultations and glasses, as well as dental prostheses and oral hygiene, “services that are not covered by the National Health Service (SNS)”, stating that the proposal is part of the objective of “building the local social state”.

To have access to this medical service, elderly “just need to go to their pharmacy”, take their Citizen Card, which certifies that they have residency in Lisbon, and sign up for the plan, he explained, clarifying that, contrary to what was initially planned, the operationalisation is not dependent on the adhesion of the parish councils.

“We cannot live in a country where we do not solve people's problems and who are constantly, in the case of health, thinking about whether it is public or private”, defended Carlos Moedas, considering that the existence of 1.5 million Portuguese people without family doctor “is the case of a fragile national state”.