Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Honorable Director General of the World Health Organization,
I would like to warmly thank you for your invitation to speak today at the Annual European General Assembly of the World Health Organization.
An Organization that has the crucial global role in the protection of the health of the world population at a time of great global and regional challenges.
It is a great honor, but also a great responsibility to represent Greece here today.
A country of the European Union that found itself at the center of two of the most important challenges of our time: the economic crisis and the refugee and migrant crisis.
Two crises that the international community was not ready for.
Two crises that led us – particularly in Europe – to a great dilemma:
Do we confront the challenges of our time with solidarity, respect of human dignity and based on the international law? Or do we decide that the best choice is to protect only our own nation and leave all other decisions to the markets?
My country chose the first path, which is also the only path that allows Europe to have a future.
We were stricken hard in the field of health, by the economic crisis and the austerity measures that were imposed on us, as well as the large number of migrants that entered Greece.
But we decided, that the only way to protect and support society was to strengthen universal healthcare and at the same time to try our best so that all vulnerable groups – including immigrants – to have access to healthcare as well.
Greece is a country that is going to great lengths in order to heal the wounds of its citizens from the harsh austerity measures of these last eight years.
Measures that have undoubtedly affected the level of health and healthcare of the citizens of Greece.
At the same time, I feel I am speaking here on behalf of all citizens of the European Union who support its founding principles.
European citizens who believe that investing in health means protecting human dignity and social equality and cohesion.
[Against neoliberalism and nationalism.]
Against those who want to weaken the social welfare acquis and who believe that healthcare should be a privilege for only those who can afford it.
Against those who believe that healthcare should be a privilege only for the citizens of a country, but not the immigrants living in it.
But, as you say here in the World Health Organization, “Health is not just the lack of illness or disability but the state of full physical, psychological and social well-being.”
The promotion of health and healthcare services is a fundamental human and social right.
It is not only a question of good healthcare services, but a question of comprehensive policies that prevent the social and economic causes of poor health and illness.
Causes like poverty and social exclusion, lack of decent living conditions or poor diet.
The connection between economic crisis and the vulnerability of people – particularly of lower socio-economic backgrounds – has been established in relevant research.
And this is why what we need is a health policy whose priority is supporting weak and vulnerable groups, aiming at decreasing inequalities.
Let us not forget that inequalities contravene the fundamental principles of the World Health Organization and the Alma Ata Declaration on “Health Care for all”.
In Greece, having experienced – in a traumatic way – the consequences of austerity policies in the field of public health care and the welfare state, we have been promoting an alternative political program in the last two years.
Based on the following:
-universal coverage of the population,
-bias in favor of the Public Health Care System,
-improvement of management in the Health Care System,
-eradicating the “passive privatization” of the Health Care System and the burden on citizens through “out of pocket” payments,
-reforming primary health care,
-giving more emphasis to the rights of patients,
This is our response to the crisis in the Health Care System, to inequalities in access, and to the negative trend in the health care of the population, particularly in a period of higher risk and multiple challenges to health.
Despite the asymmetry between pressing needs and available resources and despite budgetary restrictions, we have made important steps in this direction.
By redistributing public expenses and combining resources from the state budget and social insurance, we have succeeded in the following:
First, we have ensured the universal, free and equal access of uninsured citizens to the public health care system. In this way, we have finally closed the period of “health care poverty” in our country, fulfilling the goal of the World Health Organization and the EU, that “no one should be left behind”.
Second, we supported and stabilized the Public Healthcare System. We increased the percentage of public expenses to GDP, from 4.7% in 2015, to 5.1 % in 2016-2017. We filled many empty, doctor and nurse positions in hospitals. We improved the function and the effectiveness of public institutions. We improved transparency as well as public accountability in management. We invested in the development of human resources. We protected the scientific and professional integrity of young doctors and we are trying to reverse the brain drain.
Third, we confronted the problems of corruption and wastefulness in the Health System.
Fourth, we ensured reliable health care to thousands of refugees and immigrants, including through the vaccination of children, through ensuring that the refugee crisis would not lead to a problem of public health and through strengthening the culture of solidarity in Greek society.
Fifth, we promoted reforms in the Health Care System that were pending for decades. The most important were the reform of Primary Health Care that is now being organized on the basis of decentralized structures and the strengthening of the institution of the family doctor. And here I would like to underline that the technical support and contribution of the European branch of the World Health Organization in reforming primary Health Care, was extremely valuable.
Sixth, we facilitated the access of patients to the necessary innovative medicine, confronting a problem that has existed for many years in Greece in evaluating pharmaceutical innovation and negotiating affordable prices for expensive medicine, where necessary.
Of course, there are many important steps to be taken in order to correct the mistakes of the past, and to build a modern Health Care System in Greece.
We need many additional reforms, but also difficult measures.
But at the same time, we need a global understanding that protecting healthcare and human dignity – meeting the Sustainable Development Goals – is not a privilege or a luxury.
It is one of the most important tools we have in order to confront the challenges of our age.
I know the World Health Organization is an ally in this effort and I warmly thank you for the work you are doing in this direction.
