Public hospitals stretched further after access granted to uninsured Greeks

A change in legislation last April has given access to the public health system to some 2.5 million Greeks who did not have social insurance but has also put a financial strain on hospitals, whose funding has not increased.

Treating uninsured patients cost public hospitals in Athens 57.2 million euros last year. Across Greece, 23.5 million euros was spent on providing free lab tests to about 204,000 people.

“Our experience shows that the number of uninsured people coming to the hospitals is increasing,” the vice president of the Athens-Piraeus Hospital Doctors’ Association, Ilias Sioras, told Kathimerini. “But the hospitals do not have adequate funds.” State funding is at 1.1 billion euros this year, the same as in 2016.