MADRID: Large demonstrations are taking place in more than a dozen Spanish cities to protest plans to part-privatize the public health care system with some questioning the government's motives.

Thousands marched in Madrid and Barcelona on Sunday in the year's third "white tide" demonstration, named after the color of the medical scrubs many protesters wear.

Health care and education are administered by Spain's 17 semi-autonomous regions and some indebted ones, like Madrid, have announced the part-privatization of some services, with some users openly suspicious that the move is more a political-motivated ploy than an attempt to cut costs.

Civil servant Javier Tarabilla says Spain's welfare state is being dismantled to give them to the private sector.