As the head of Greece’s
largest oncology department, Dr. Kostas Syrigos thought he had seen
everything. But nothing prepared him for Elena, an unemployed woman
whose breast cancer had been diagnosed a year before she came to him.
By that time, her cancer
had grown to the size of an orange and broken through the skin, leaving
a wound that she was draining with paper napkins. “When we saw her we
were speechless,” said Dr. Syrigos, the chief of oncology at Sotiria
General Hospital in central Athens. “Everyone was crying. Things like
that are described in textbooks, but you never see them because until
now, anybody who got sick in this country could always get help.”
Life in Greece has been turned on its head since the debt crisis took
hold. But in few areas has the change been more striking than in health
care. Until recently, Greece had a typical European health system, with
employers and individuals contributing to a fund that with government
assistance financed universal care. People who lost their jobs received
health care and unemployment benefits for a year, but were still treated
by hospitals even after the benefits expired.
Things changed in July 2011, when Greece signed a supplemental loan
agreement with international lenders to ward off financial collapse.
Now, as stipulated in the deal, if people are unable to foot the bill
after their benefits expire, they are on their own, paying all costs out
of pocket.
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