The Health Outcomes in Recession: Preliminarily Findings for Greece

Background: Greek Healthcare System Before The International Monetary Fund

Healthcare system in Greece was mainly financed by the public sector (national budget and public funds), although the private sector was expanding. Total health spending reached about 10.6% of GDP in 2010 (World development indicators 2011, 2011). Although Greece was below the average in terms of per capita health expenditure, the mean annual growth rate of expenditure was 6.9%, which was much higher than the average OECD growth (4.0%). The main category of expenditure, which led to excessive increases in total health expenditure, was the pharmaceutical expenditure (2.5% of GDP), with growth in real per capita expenditure for 2000-2009 reaching 11.1% (WHO Global Health Expenditure Database., 2011). Some of the factors responsible for the pharmaceutical expenditure include the low penetration of off-patented drugs, the absence of electronic prescription system, the over prescription and an overall lack of a robust regulatory framework (Tsiantou et al., 2009; Falagas et al., 2007; Vandoros & Stargardt, 2013).