The Deadly Cost Of Austerity On Greece's Health Care System

For over four years, Greece has implemented strict austerity measures as a condition of the major bailout deals keeping the country afloat. The Greek government is currently locked in a showdown with its international creditors about how much further they will have to tighten budgets in order to receive a next tranche of loans. The austerity program is highly unpopular in Greece, and the ruling Syriza party won elections in January after promising to scale it back. Despite a raft of austerity measures since 2010, Greece's economy has not lifted out of the recession sparked by the 2008 economic crisis. Greece instead is feeling the dual pain of reduced social services amid a crashing economy. One area with particularly tragic outcomes is the flailing medical system, with disastrous repercussions for public health in Greece. This is what has happened to the health sector in Greece during the austerity era: Healthcare budgets are shrinking Government spending on public health care has dropped from 6.8 percent of GDP in 2010 to around 5 percent this year. It is the lowest ratio in the European Union, outside of the eastern European countries that joined the union since 2004. A nurse at a psychiatric hospital at a protest outside the Health Ministry in Athens on Feb. 11, 2013. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis) The brunt of Greek spending cuts have been felt in public hospitals, where budgets have been cut in half since the beginning of the year. Doctors have lost their jobs...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news