Greek’s health, waiting for the ‘deus ex machina’

Abstract

Greece from May 2010 has been following Troika’s (European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund) austere policies in all over the public finance sector. Troika’s instructions which are adopted by the politicians resulted to depressed and weak citizens. The consequences in health care sector are becoming visible across the society. A big part of Greek’s society is uninsured without any access to public health care system. The vulnerable social groups confront catastrophic health care expenditures and impoverishment with no social net protection. Greeks are paying the price of their irrational way of living. The current paper has gathered from the literature the early effects of the implementation of these policies on public health and healthcare.

Keywords::

• austerity measure
• economic adjustment program
• economic crisis
• Greece
• inequalities in health

Financial & competing interests disclosure

The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

Key issues

• Greek’s health and health care are a hot issue of top interest in any international economic discussion during the last years.

• High rates of out-of-pocket payments drive social groups to catastrophic health care expenditures.

• The aggravation of socioeconomic environment leads to inequalities in health care.

• The first step is to recognize the problem, define it, measure it and then to study strategic approaches in order to confront it.

• Greece must adopt rapid policies on poverty and social justice.

• Central emphasis should be shown on the vulnerable groups adopting measures such as development of a social protection net with a minimum income and free use of health care service.

• Today the problems request a different political culture and a more humanistic approach.

• The number of uninsured for health care in 2008 was 5,00,000 and in 2014 was at least 2.3 million.

• According to the Greek constitution, health is a social right and as such all those who have the responsibility must develop a strategic plan at a national level in order to ensure it.