Greeks get sick more because health resources are not enough

At the same time, the citizens of these three states present multimorbidity (it is noted that 6 out of 10 people in Poland suffer from multiple diseases), as well as high unmet medical needs (28% of the population in Greece, 21% in Romania and 12 % in Poland report having unmet health needs), increasing over time.

The reason for the above is that health investments, total public and pharmaceutical health expenditures, are not sufficient in these 3 countries, despite their great economic growth in the last 20 years.

In particular, the percentage of GDP invested in health in the specific countries is still below the EU average, among the 27 (Greece 9%, Poland 6.5%, Romania 5.7% of GDP, with the EU average at 10%).

In these countries, high levels of private health expenditure by patients are observed (Greece 35%, Poland 20%, Romania 19% against 15.3% of the EU average).

This, combined with health service delays caused by the pandemic, the cost of living crisis, inflation and geopolitical challenges, has led to significantly lower healthy life expectancy and fewer healthy life years in Greece, Poland and Romania, compared to the other EU countries, which intensifies the health and socio-economic inequalities between Eastern and Western Europe.

These figures emerge from the study "The Impact of Under-Investment in Medicine and Health Services: The Cases of Poland, Romania and Greece" recently published in the Eurohealth Journal, and will be presented at the ISPOR Conference in November.

Reduced funding

The head of the study, Professor of Health Economics of the Greek Academy of Sciences, Yiannis Yfantopoulos, pointed out that "The ten-year economic crisis, the 3 memorandums and then the epidemiological crisis of COVID-19, significantly affected the underfunding of the health system in Greece. State funding for Health in our country should not be seen as a waste of public resources, but as an opportunity to invest in the health of the population, i.e. the human capital of our economy."

Especially for Greece, the analysis shows a significant underfunding of the public health system compared to the rest of the European Union states, as well as a significant decrease in public health expenditures with a corresponding increase in private expenditures. The shifting of costs from the public sector to the pockets of Greek citizens placed an additional burden on Greek households, creating high levels of catastrophic spending.

The issue of chronic under-investment in health over the past two decades in Eastern and Southeastern European states such as Greece, resulting in significantly fewer healthy life years for their citizens compared to the rest of Europe, was discussed at the European Health Forum Gastein (EHFG 2023) which concluded yesterday.

Health in crisis

Prof. Yfantopoulos presented the findings of the relevant study in a special section entitled "Health systems in crisis - the case of regional European states". The study highlights the urgent need for action to balance health inequalities between citizens of peripheral European states and the rest of Europe.

High-level panelists, representing relevant policy makers, patient associations and the pharmaceutical industry, commented on the study results and sought common approaches and policy interventions to improve access to health care and health outcomes in the region.