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      Austerity: a failed experiment on the people of Europe

      , , ,  
      Clinical Medicine
      Royal College of Physicians

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          Abstract

          <p class="first" id="d215561e124">Many governments in Europe, either of their own volition or at the behest of the international financial institutions, have adopted stringent austerity policies in response to the financial crisis. By contrast, the USA launched a financial stimulus. The results of these experiments are now clear: the American economy is growing and those European countries adopting austerity, including the UK, Ireland, Greece, Portugal and Spain, are stagnating and struggling to repay rising debts. An initial recovery in the UK was halted once austerity measures hit. However, austerity has been not only an economic failure, but also a health failure, with increasing numbers of suicides and, where cuts in health budgets are being imposed, increasing numbers of people being unable to access care. Yet their stories remain largely untold. Here, we argue that there is an alternative to austerity, but that ideology is triumphing over evidence. Our paper was written to contribute to discussions among health policy leaders in Europe that will take place at the 15th European Health Forum at Gastein in October 2012, as its theme ‘Crisis and Opportunity – Health in an Age of Austerity’. </p>

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          Health effects of financial crisis: omens of a Greek tragedy.

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            Does free care improve adults' health? Results from a randomized controlled trial.

            Does free medical care lead to better health than insurance plans that require the patient to shoulder part of the cost? In an effort to answer this question, we studied 3958 people between the ages of 14 and 61 who were free of disability that precluded work and had been randomly assigned to a set of insurance plans for three or five years. One plan provided free care; the others required enrollees to pay a share of their medical bills. As previously reported, patients in the latter group made approximately one-third fewer visits to a physician and were hospitalized about one-third less often. For persons with poor vision and for low-income persons with high blood pressure, free care brought an improvement (vision better by 0.2 Snellen lines, diastolic blood pressure lower by 3 mm Hg); better control of blood pressure reduced the calculated risk of early death among those at high risk. For the average participant, as well as for subgroups differing in income and initial health status, no significant effects were detected on eight other measures of health status and health habits. Confidence intervals for these eight measures were sufficiently narrow to rule out all but a minimal influence, favorable or adverse, of free care for the average participant. For some measures of health in subgroups of the population, however, the broader confidence intervals make this conclusion less certain.
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              Spanish health care cuts: penny wise and pound foolish?

              The purpose of this paper is to convey the specific health care actions and policies undertaken by the Spanish government, as well as by regional governments, as a result of the economic crisis. Throughout the last two years we have witnessed a number of actions in areas such as human capital, activity and processes, outsourcing and investment that, poorly coordinated, have shaped the nature of financial cuts on public services. This paper discloses the size and magnitude of these actions, the main actors involved and the major consequences for the health sector, citizens and patients. We further argue that there are a number of factors which have been neglected in the discourse and in the actions undertaken. First, the crisis situation is not being used as an opportunity for major reforms in the health care system. Further, the lay public and professionals have remained as observers in the process, with little to no participation at any point. Moreover, there is a general perception that the solution to the Spanish situation is either the proposed health care cuts or an increase in cost sharing for services which neglects alternative and/or complementary measures. Finally, there is a complete absence of any scientific component in the discourse and in the policies proposed. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.
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                Author and article information

                Journal
                Clinical Medicine
                Clinical Medicine
                Royal College of Physicians
                1470-2118
                1473-4893
                August 01 2012
                August 01 2012
                : 12
                : 4
                : 346-350
                Article
                10.7861/clinmedicine.12-4-346
                4952125
                22930881
                f49c2be9-b00f-4117-a8d6-3744b762c89b
                © 2012
                History

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