The objective of the article is to analyze two aspects of healthcare in rural Spain during the second period of the Franco dictatorship (1959–1975). Firstly, we analyze the introduction of the Special Agrarian Social Security Regime (1966), which provided healthcare to rural workers. Until then, rural workers had been excluded from the Compulsory Health Insurance (1944), which provided healthcare to industrial and other low-income workers. Secondly, we analyze the position of rural doctors against the extension of health coverage to rural workers. To achieve both objectives, we analyze the limitations of medical practice in the rural milieu and how Franco’s dictatorship unsuccessfully managed these limitations. We have used several sources: legal regulations, publications of official professional associations, press devoted to medical practice, sociological reports, and archival records.
Keywords
Health services accessibility; Rural health services; Physicians; Spain; History 20th century