The report, Access to Healthcare for the Most Vulnerable in a Europe in Social Crisis, presents a wealth of statistics regarding the charity’s work with vulnerable groups throughout the EU. While the effects of austerity have impacted the provision of health care to the most vulnerable in a number of countries it is clear that no country has experienced such a quick and thorough dismantling of the social safety net as Greece has.
 
Currently almost 3,000,000 Greeks are now without any health insurance in a population of 10,815,197 – i.e. almost a third of the population. Furthermore many are increasingly unable to cover the out of pocket costs to visit hospitals and medical facilities. This is despite a Health Care Voucher system having been established by the government and Troika in the last Memorandum of Understanding. As MdM notes this was only intended to cover 230,000 of the uninsured, yet even this low target is far from being met with only 21,000 vouchers having been issued by March 2014.
 
As a result MdM recorded the highest percentage of domestic nationals visiting its clinics in Greece than in any other country. Roughly 25% of the patients seen by the NGO in Greece were Greek. In other European countries the corresponding figure was much lower – usually in the single digits. This is even the case following the opening of a clinic by the NGO on the island of Mytilene which deals almost exclusively with the immigrants landing on the island as they attempt to cross by sea into the EU (which increases the percentage of immigrants seen by the NGO).
 
For pregnant women this leads to a level of (non) care that no country could be proud of, let alone a supposedly developed modern European democracy. Access to Public Maternity Clinics has become extremely difficult or impossible for uninsured pregnant women who must pay the full cost of antenatal care and delivery. The latter alone amounts to 650 euros in an uncomplicated birth and to about 1,200 euros for a Caesarean section. Termination of a pregnancy is also an option in Greece and costs 350 euros for the uninsured.
 
As the NGO notes, as a result many uninsured mothers have no antenatal care prior to delivery increasing the health risks for the mother and child, and increasing stress for the medical team during delivery.
 
Furthermore there are even disturbing reports of public maternity wards refusing to issue birth certificates to children of mothers unable to pay the cost of delivery or even threatening to refuse to hand over the child to the parents until the cost of delivery has been covered.
 
With all of the above it is perhaps no surprise therefore that there has been a huge drop in the number of live births in Greece (already suffering from a low birth rate) while stillbirths have increased by over 20% during the years of the crisis.
 
The number of children going without vaccinations is also increasing as the formerly free public services for such vaccinations are closing. According to a study published in May 2013 60 -70% of vaccinations of children in Greece take place at private clinics. However a full course of such vaccinations costs about 1,200 euros which is out of the reach of many struggling families. Doctors of MdM note that unless this trend is reversed it is only a matter of time before deadly epidemic diseases, once eliminated by vaccines, rear their heads again in the country.