Published on October 11, 2011 at 6:09 AM
"Economically vulnerable Greeks are losing health care access amid dwindling budgets, facing higher risks of HIV infection and sexually transmitted diseases, and in some cases, even dying, according to a study released online Monday by The Lancet," the Associated Press/ABC News reports (Torchia, 10/10). "There were about 40 percent cuts in hospital budgets, understaffing, reported occasional shortage of medical supplies, and bribes given to medical staff to jump queues in overstretched hospitals," the authors wrote, according to BBC News. "At the same time there was a 24 percent increase in public hospital admissions, partly fuelled by fewer patients using private hospitals," BBC writes (Gallagher, 10/9).
 This article was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
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