Download the final 'Closing the Gap' publication: Taking Action on Health Equity.
This publication contains summaries of what each of the 21 ´Closing the Gap´ partners are doing to address health inequalities in their countries, as well as the conclusions and recommendations of this 3-year initiative.
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Greece is generally described as a welfare state with a social-market economy. Although recent and prospective growth performance is considered to be good, convergence with EU living standards is a major medium-term policy challenge. The economy is characterized by high unemployment rates (a record high 35,7% among young women), low salaries and inflation rates which all lead to important support needs. The State is not able to cover all the needs to ensure that vulnerable groups have a decent quality of life. According to the GINI index, Greece has a relatively high level of income inequality, with a worse distribution of wealth than the Eur-A European average (UNDP, 2004 Human Development report 2004. New York, United Nations Development Programme). The level of welfare support for the unemployed in Greece is extremely low by international standards, and for the majority of unemployed people the family acts as the main support.
There has been limited research conducted on the measurement of health inequalities. The study carried out by P. Mackenbach and colleagues on the policy developments in tackling socioeconomic inequalities in health, revealed that among the nine European countries studied, Greece was the only one in a stage preceding the measurement of health inequalities. (The Lancet, 2003; 362: 1409-14).
Recent policy and legislative articles on social justice/social inclusion to tackle macro environmental factors include general references to health inequalities. The current Public Health Policy (officially implemented by the Greek Ministry of Health, Welfare and Social Solidarity)does express the aim of integrating specific vulnerable groups of the population, but lacks specific objectives, quantitative targets and timeframes. The Ministry of Labor and Social Security has also comprised a National Action Plan for Social Inclusion, which similarly lacks quantitative targets.
Greece lacks financial support mechanisms both at the State level (absence of official programmes targeting social agencies as beneficiaries) and from financial institutions (insufficiency of financial tools and institutions). However, as a result of the current EU priorities and within the framework of the EU Community, funding has been undertaken to improve the quality of life of some vulnerable groups of the populations (Regions in action: a country on the move. A selection of successful projects supported by the Structural Funds in Greece. European Commission 2003.).
Generally speaking, there are needs for greater political commitment in order to reduce health inequalities among the Greek population.
The background information for this entry was collected by the Greek project partners:
Christina Dimitrakaki & Yannis Tountas from the Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine, Athens.
This section provides the key documents on health inequalities published on a national level in Greece in the past decade.
In that section key actors that are in a position to have an impact on health inequalities policies, such as ministries, state agencies, universities and/or independent institutes are listed.
In this section main tools used to implement and monitor national policies in the field of health inequalities are listed.
Please click here to learn about the databases where you can find a collection of good practices aiming at reducing health inequalities collected in Greece.