Shocking research: Austerity is claiming lives!

 

Large spending cuts and the rise in unemployment are pushing more people into depression, while lower income means that fewer people can go to the doctor or buy medicines, Reuters news agency stresses.

 

The result is a reversal of the trend that existed until 2007 -a steady decline in suicide rates- coupled with the alarming outbreak of diseases, including AIDS and even malaria in Greece, say the researchers that drew a large-scale study on Health in Europe, which was published in the Lancet medical journal.

 

They add that this situation calls for a strong welfare system, but austerity especially in southern Europe, with the most recent example of Cyprus, has removed such "safety nets."

 

"There is clearly a matter of reality denial about the impact of the crisis on health, although it is very obvious. The European Commission has a statutory obligation to assess the impact of projects implemented in health, but there has been no study to date on the aftermath of the austerity measures imposed by troika," Martin McKee of the European Observatory on Policies and Health Systems, supported by the World Health Organisation, said.

 

He added that the failure of European governments and the European Commission to cope with the impact of the policy on health is reminiscent of the tactics followed by tobacco companies in relation to the smoking restrictions.

 

However, the case of Iceland shows there is an alternative. Despite the sweeping debt crisis, Iceland rejected the austerity plan, held a referendum and continued to invest in its welfare system. The researchers found that there were no detrimental effects on the health sector since the crisis struck.

 

Iceland's economy went back on the road to recovery, although a difficult one with inflation remaining persistently high.

 

On the other hand, McKee and his colleagues reported that health systems in many European countries are under pressure, including Spain, Portugal and Greece and this has a series of negative effects.

 

There is an increasing tendency for patients to seek medical help after a delay, although this reduces the chances of early diagnosis and treatment, while making it more expensive for the Funds in the long-term.

 

As Reuters points out, the hospitals in Greece are struggling to maintain even the basic standards of operation, leading to increased nosocomial infections and shortage of critical range drugs like those for epilepsy.