Abstract
BackgroundThe programme for fiscal consolidation in Greece has led to income decrease and several changes in health policy. In this context, this study aims to assess how economic crisis affected unmet healthcare needs in Greece.MethodsTime series analysis was performed for the years 2004 through 2011 using the EU-SILC database. The dependent variable was the percentage of people who had medical needs but did not use healthcare services. Median income, unemployment and time period were used as independent variables. We also compared self-reported unmet healthcare needs drawn from a national survey conducted in pre-crisis 2006 with a similar survey from 2011 (after the onset of the crisis). A common questionnaire was used in both years to assess unmet healthcare needs, including year of survey, gender, age, health status, chronic disease, educational level, income, employment, health insurance status, and prefecture. The outcome of interest was unmet healthcare needs due to financial reasons. Ordinary least squares, as well as logistic regression analysis were conducted to analyze the results.ResultsUnmet healthcare needs increased after the enactment of austerity measures, while the year of participation in the survey was significantly associated with unmet healthcare needs. Income, educational level, employment status, and having insurance, private or public, were also significant determinants of unmet healthcare needs due to financial reasons.ConclusionsThe adverse economic environment has significantly affected unmet health needs. Therefore health policy actions and social policy measures are essential in order to mitigate the negative impact on access to healthcare services and health status.
Highlights
The programme for fiscal consolidation in Greece has led to income decrease and several changes in health policy
In 2010, the Greek economy was placed under the surveillance of the European Commission, the European Central Bank, and the International Monetary Fund when the Hellenic Republic signed onto the first Economic Adjustment Programme (EAP) [1]
The aforementioned suggest that unmet healthcare needs increased after the enactment of austerity measures in Greece, mainly due to patients' difficulty to cover the costs of medical care
Summary
The programme for fiscal consolidation in Greece has led to income decrease and several changes in health policy. In this context, this study aims to assess how economic crisis affected unmet healthcare needs in Greece. The Greek economy entered a phase of severe recession, Several studies have noticed the adverse impact of economic crisis on health and healthcare. Recent publications suggest that the current economic crisis is associated with a drop in self-rated health status [4], a negative impact of the crisis on health trends [5] and difficulties on health promotion and public health policies [6]. Apart from the negative impact on health, economic crisis has adversely affected healthcare services [7, 8].
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