Tapia Granados José A, Rodriguez Javier M
Department of History and Political Science, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, United States.
Mathematica Policy Research and Population Studies Center, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan,, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
Health Policy. 2015 Jul;119(7):941-53. doi: 10.1016/j.healthpol.2015.04.009. Epub 2015 Apr 25.
Reports have attributed a public health tragedy in Greece to the Great Recession and the subsequent application of austerity programs. It is also claimed that the comparison of Greece with Iceland and Finland-where austerity policies were not applied-reveals the harmful effect of austerity on health and that by protecting spending in health and social budgets, governments can offset the harmful effects of economic crises on health. We use data on life expectancy, mortality rates, incidence of infectious diseases, rates of vaccination, self-reported health and other measures to examine the evolution of population health and health services performance in Greece, Finland and Iceland since 1990-2011 or 2012-the most recent years for which data are available. We find that in the three countries most indicators of population health continued improving after the Great Recession started. In terms of population health and performance of the health care system, in the period after 2007 for which data are available, Greece did as good as Iceland and Finland. The evidence does not support the claim that there is a health crisis in Greece. On the basis of the extant evidence, claims of a public health tragedy in Greece seem overly exaggerated.
有报告将希腊的一场公共卫生悲剧归咎于大衰退以及随后实施的紧缩计划。还有人声称，将希腊与未实施紧缩政策的冰岛和芬兰进行比较，揭示了紧缩政策对健康的有害影响，并且通过保护卫生和社会预算支出，政府可以抵消经济危机对健康的有害影响。我们使用关于预期寿命、死亡率、传染病发病率、疫苗接种率、自我报告的健康状况及其他指标的数据，来考察1990年至2011年或2012年（可获取数据的最近年份）以来希腊、芬兰和冰岛人口健康及卫生服务绩效的演变情况。我们发现，在这三个国家，大衰退开始后，大多数人口健康指标仍在持续改善。就人口健康和医疗保健系统的绩效而言，在2007年之后有数据可查的时期内，希腊的表现与冰岛和芬兰一样好。现有证据并不支持希腊存在健康危机这一说法。基于现有证据，关于希腊发生公共卫生悲剧的说法似乎被过度夸大了。
