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View Full Version : Greek Health System Crumbles Under Weight of Crisis.....



MMC
06-15-2012, 10:06 AM
ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece's rundown state hospitals are cutting off vital drugs, limiting non-urgent operations and rationing even basic medical materials for exhausted doctors as a combination of economic crisis and political stalemate strangle health funding.

Greece, a member of the euro zone that groups some of the richest nations on earth, has descended so far that drugmakers are even working on emergency plans to keep medicines flowing into the country should it crash out of the currency bloc.

The emergency has grown out of a tangle of unpaid bills, with pharmacists and doctors complaining of being unable to pay suppliers until competing health insurers clear a growing backlog of unfilled state payments.

Greece imports nearly all its medicines and relies heavily on patented rather than cheaper generic drugs, making it vulnerable to a funding squeeze that would grow sharply worse if it were forced out of the euro after elections on Sunday.

The IMF has said Greece needs to keep public health spending below 6 percent of GDP, down from around 10 percent at present and must sharply cut spending on pharmaceuticals which has surged over the past decade.

It says Athens must cut such spending by at least 2 billion euros from 2010 levels, a step that would bring the average public expenditure on outpatient pharmaceuticals to 1 percent of GDP by the end of this year.....snip~

http://news.yahoo.com/greek-health-system-crumbles-under-weight-crisis-141916117.html
Reuters – 31 mins ago<<<<<

There it is.....Greece's infrastructure and healthcare down the tubes. They are even out of basics. Like paper and sheets for beds. Basic services are being stopped. State hospitals emptied out. They have to have another vote and try to get in a govenment that will accept the Austerity Measures. Plus Obama has pushed for the rest of the Eu to keep Greece in.

They need cancer drugs and other pharmaceuticals. I am surprised they never have used generics or introduced them into their system. Funny how the medical companies and pharma are even preparing for Greece to go back to the drachma.

Peter1469
06-15-2012, 03:05 PM
Greece needs to exit the Eurozone and get back on the Drachma. They need to devalue it and start exporting and attracting tourists for cheap vacations.

And they need to modernize their tax system- tax fraud is rampant. Perhaps Greece would be wise to go to paperless currency and use debit cards so it can collect taxes.

MMC
06-15-2012, 03:17 PM
Greece needs to exit the Eurozone and get back on the Drachma. They need to devalue it and start exporting and attracting tourists for cheap vacations.

And they need to modernize their tax system- tax fraud is rampant. Perhaps Greece would be wise to go to paperless currency and use debit cards so it can collect taxes.

Plus I would say try to set up pharma with generics and whatever. You would think some private industry could donate for medical.

Even if Greece does.....where does that leave the EU. I don't think it will stop any others depression or recession. Seems the IMF wants to be into regulating everybody too.

Do you think those sanctions hurt them as much as Syria and Iran?

Peter1469
06-15-2012, 03:25 PM
Plus I would say try to set up pharma with generics and whatever. You would think some private industry could donate for medical.

Even if Greece does.....where does that leave the EU. I don't think it will stop any others depression or recession. Seems the IMF wants to be into regulating everybody too.

Do you think those sanctions hurt them as much as Syria and Iran?

I think that the Eurozone doesn't want Greece to leave because they fear that if Greece helps itself by leaving the EZ, other nations will jump ship.

That is the EZ's problem- a fiscal union without a political union is doomed.

Mainecoons
06-15-2012, 07:58 PM
The fate of all government health care systems. Government is just too damned inefficient and incompetent to do this job.

Goldie Locks
06-15-2012, 09:26 PM
The fate of all government health care systems. Government is just too damned inefficient and incompetent to do this job.

Booyah!!!!

MMC
06-16-2012, 08:33 AM
I think that the Eurozone doesn't want Greece to leave because they fear that if Greece helps itself by leaving the EZ, other nations will jump ship.

That is the EZ's problem- a fiscal union without a political union is doomed.

What about the sanctions they imposed? Affecting them themselves?

Peter1469
06-16-2012, 08:36 AM
What about the sanctions they imposed? Affecting them themselves? The austerity measures? Not really being done.

MMC
06-16-2012, 08:41 AM
The austerity measures? Not really being done.

No the Sanctions the EU put on Syria and Iran. Do you think this is also affecting themselves? As like with Greece they were getting most of their Oil from Iran and Syria.

Peter1469
06-16-2012, 09:08 AM
Yes, the sanctions do hurt Europe, especially the PIIGS.