The National Confederation of ELA Entities (ConELA) has warned that some autonomous communities are applying or considering the application of co-payments to the aid provided for in the ELA Law. Among those singled out are the Community of Madrid, Castilla-La Mancha, and Aragón, with Catalonia and Cantabria showing a lesser degree of application.

ConELA emphasizes that this disparity demonstrates there is room to correctly interpret the spirit of the ELA Law and ensure that aid reaches those who need it in full. Therefore, the entity calls for "homogeneous application" throughout the national territory and requests that "no regional administration apply co-payments or absorb the complement for severe disability in benefits intended to guarantee vital care".

The ELA Law was conceived to ensure continuous, specialized, 24-hour care for people with advanced ELA and other irreversible diseases requiring vital care. Its development, through the dependency system and the new grade 3+, includes financial aid that could reach 9,850 euros per month. ConELA insists that this care is "highly complex socio-health care, essential for the survival" of those affected and should not be treated as ordinary social care.

The Confederation considers that applying co-payments to this aid "distorts" the meaning of the regulation, arguing that if the care is of a health nature, no financial contribution should be required from the beneficiary, just as no co-payment is applied to health procedures. Nor should the complement for severe disability be absorbed, nor the compatibility with other family aid necessary to sustain care be limited.

The organization recalls that the foreseen amounts "are already insufficient" to cover the real cost of 24-hour care. "Reducing this benefit through co-payments further distances affected individuals from the care the law aims to guarantee," it warns. The president of ConELA, José Jiménez, stated that the objective of the ELA Law is to "guarantee that people can live with the care they need," and that applying co-payments "breaks with that spirit".

For her part, the Minister of Health, Mónica García, described it as an "scandal" and "shame" that the Community of Madrid has "imposed a co-payment" on patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ELA), despite being "the richest region in Spain". García pointed out that the Community of Madrid is the only region that requires ELA patients to pay 40 percent of the benefit, while other communities, including those governed by the PP, have progressed in helping families and have increased the state benefit without considering co-payments.

The minister called the measure "absolutely indecent," especially after the Community of Madrid used the ELA law as a "throwing weapon" against the central government. García recalled the "belligerence" of the Community of Madrid towards ELA associations, the Ministry of Health, and the Spanish Government.