Greece’s austerity measures have long
since disappeared from front page news, but a lot of the consequences are only
starting to be felt. I was shocked to read about the state of the healthcare
sector recently, and I think it deserves more attention. Almost every Greek has
been affected: health insurance is typically tied to employment (and
unemployment is now nearing 27%, leaving 800,000 uninsured), pension funds and
social security have been slashed, and public health spending has decreased by
25% ($12 billion). This has resulted in higher charges by the hospitals for the
services offered. So people have lost their insurance and assets, the quality
of care has diminished, and now rising prices are making health services even
more difficult to afford. NGOs and volunteer clinics are doing what they can,
but they were designed to help immigrant populations, and cannot handle the
increased demand from the general public. This is clearly evident by the rising
disease levels: the closing of safe needle programs has led to a 200% increase
in HIV infections, and the end of mosquito spraying programs has resulted in
the return of malaria, after a forty year absence. The suicide rate has also
jumped – it rose 45% between 2007 and 2011, which could be tied to the 250% increase
in rates of depression.
The future population is increasingly
at risk: Greece had a very low fertility rate before the recession (about 1.4
children per woman), but the birth rate has decreased by 15% in the last four
years, infant mortality has risen by 43%, and the rate of stillbirths has risen
by 21%. So women are having fewer babies to begin with (possibly the rampant
unemployment and general unrest have discouraged them), and the women who do
have children are in much greater danger of losing them than they were four
years ago.
Overall, the situation is quite
alarming, and the government has done little to address it. International
organizations could try to find more funding to expand the clinics, but it would
be an unsustainable solution – funding is unpredictable and insufficient to
fill the gaping hole left by the government. Plus, providing basic public health
services undeniably lies in the realm of governmental obligations, as far as
I’m concerned. I think the current situation poses interesting questions
– is there a point of economic chaos where a developed nation’s government can
justify eliminating health services? From a purely economic standpoint, maybe
the answer is yes, but social justice perspectives might think otherwise. And
if the government is too dysfunctional to provide healthcare, what are the obligations
of the country’s doctors, international aid, and regular citizens? It seems
unfair for medical NGOs, which are needed more desperately in other areas, to
divert funding to a developed nation. And it’s certainly unfair to doctors to
expect them to provide services for free when their own jobs and futures are at
risk. I won’t pretend to have an in-depth knowledge of Greece’s situation, but
from what I do know, it seems like the government made this mess, and that they
are the ones who need to fix it.
I realize that money is incredibly
tight right now, and that a lot of hard decisions had to be made, but the
drastic cuts to health care are shortsighted and cruel. In addition to the
multitude of negative consequences for the country right now, the reduction in
health care quality jeopardizes the country’s ability to recover in the future.
The working population is shrinking (from disease and emigration), and the
rising infant mortality has made the next generation smaller than expected. There
won’t be nearly enough young people to support the aging population, especially
now that retirees’ assets have been severely reduced. The Greek government would
do well to follow the austerity measures of some other European countries, like
Iceland, which refused to cut health budgets. Instead, they are jeopardizing
the health of their citizens, especially the most vulnerable and poor among
them – the elderly, immigrants, infants, and the unemployed. Greece has a long
road to recovery ahead, but it would be a lot more manageable if the population
were healthy. Until policies are shifted and health services are regained,
progress will be stunted and limited.
