Government Debt Crisis and the Impact on National Health Systems: A Retrospective Study and Policy Recommendations to Greece.

Evangelos Diamantis,Vasileios Charalampopoulos,Anna Garmpi,Kostas Kounetas,Paraskevi Farmaki,Christos Damaskos,Alexandros Patsouras,Georgios Kyriakos,Nikolaos Trakas,Vasiliki E Georgakopoulou,Spyridon Savvanis,Nikolaos Garmpis

doi:10.7759/cureus.10786

Abstract

This article aims to explore the impact of the government debt crisis on the national health system (NHS) using a representative sample of respondents in Greek hospitals and provides certain suggestions regarding health policies that could be implemented at the national or local level. This study was conducted at the Evangelismos & Eye Polyclinic of Athens General Hospital in Athens, Greece. The study period was January and February of 2016, and the study included 600 outpatients who frequently submitted to follow-ups and consented to participate. Based on the results of this study, the participants had an average health status, while 94.2% of them had medical insurance. The predominant reason (88%) for choosing public hospitals instead of private practices was insufficient income. Further investigation revealed a significant positive correlation between the participant’s age and the number of hospital visits, the number of medical tests performed, and their satisfaction from the health services provided. Finally, a probit-model was used in order to study factors that could potentially influence their level of satisfaction from the services they used.

Highlights

The 1976 charter of the World Health Organization (WHO) has defined health as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being” and not as the absence of disease or infirmity [1]
This article aims to explore the impact of the government debt crisis on the national health system (NHS) using a representative sample of respondents in Greek hospitals and provides certain suggestions regarding health policies that could be implemented at the national or local level
There is no doubt that a financial crisis along with a direct reduction of public health expenditure leads to unemployment and population impoverishment, eventually negatively affecting health indicators such as life expectancy, morbidity, mortality, access to health services, and weakening of the healthcare system [2,3,4]

Summary

Introduction

The 1976 charter of the World Health Organization (WHO) has defined health as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being” and not as the absence of disease or infirmity [1]. There is no doubt that a financial crisis along with a direct reduction of public health expenditure leads to unemployment and population impoverishment, eventually negatively affecting health indicators such as life expectancy, morbidity, mortality, access to health services, and weakening of the healthcare system [2,3,4]. Spain, and Portugal have adopted strict fiscal austerity measures As their economies continue to struggle, pressure on their national health systems (NHS) rises. In these countries, suicides and outbreaks of infectious diseases are becoming more common as health expenditure cuts limit the public's access to healthcare services [6]. The researchers concluded that the implementation measures resulted in a significant shift of the respective cost to households, either through an increase of co-payments for the use of health services or through higher fees for pharmaceutical products [9]

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