The Trials and Tribulations of the National Health System (ESY) in Greece: A Chronicle of Unfulfilled Promises

Abstract

The creation of the National Health System (ESY) in the 1980s is a major
landmark in the development of the welfare state in Greece during the metapolitefsi (regime change) period. An ambitious effort to reform the fragmented, ineffective health services of the post-World War II period, it achieved a major reorganisation of public hospitals and the establishment of rural health centres providing primary health care. Yet its promise of high-quality services for all was not fulfilled, since vested interests blocked its full implementation. While the fiscal crisis of the 2010s was the catalyst for the
unification of the health insurance funds, the creation of integrated primary health care intowns failed once again. This article examines the achievements and failures of the reform in light of the political and social factors that shaped this era.