http://www.lexisnexis.com/uk/nexis/results/docview/docview.do?docLinkInd=true&risb=21_T8582316966&format=GNBFULL&sort=BOOLEAN&startDocNo=1&resultsUrlKey=29_T8582316969&cisb=22_T8582316968&treeMax=false&treeWidth=0&csi=250053&docNo=12Global Insight February 9, 2010 Brendan MelckEstablishment of Single Health Insurance Fund Proposed in Greece in Response to Economic CrisisBYLINE: Brendan Melck
The Greek ministry of labour and social security, together with the ministry of health, is planning to create a unified health insurance fund, bringing together the four major health insurance funds in the country, so that 95% of Greeks would be covered by one fund, reports Greek news provider Express. The reasoning behind the plan is the need to make drastic reductions in spending on healthcare, and particularly in pharmaceutical spending, which reached as high as 5 billion euro (US$6.86 billion) in 2009. The proposed name for the planned unified fund is the Unified Health Insurance Fund, and its establishment would be paid for by the existing main public health insurance providers, as well as by the government.
Significance:The current economic crisis that Greece is undergoing has compelled the country's new socialist government to act decisively to reduce the country's spiralling pharmaceutical expenditure, and this new proposal to create a single health insurance fund is the latest instance of the government's efforts in this regard (seeGreece: 22 December 2009:). The Slovak government has already carried out a similar merger of the country's two main health insurance companies, also in an attempt to save money in the face of the economic slowdown. However, the situation in Greece is more complicated, as there are four funds that the ministries plan to merge, and the larger population of the country increases the complication of such an operation. Nevertheless, should a unified health insurance fund materialise, it may improve the efficiency of the provision of health insurance in Greece, and therefore ultimately be of benefit to the pharmaceutical industry, which has borne the brunt of the economic crisis in the country (seeGreece: 19 December 2009:).