Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, after meeting with his coalition partner, PASOK Socialist chief Evangelos Venizelos, has decided to withdraw a bitterly-criticized 25 euro hospital admission fee that could have undermined their coalition if it had gone to a vote in Parliament.
The word came from Health Minister Adonis Georgiadis, who had defended the fee staunchly saying it would ultimately benefit poor people who couldn’t afford to pay it and wouldn’t be allowed into hospitals if they couldn’t.
He had challenged PASOK – some of whose lawmakers said they wanted to have the fee revised or withdrawn even though they voted for it – to find ways to come up with revenues to replace it.
That was seemingly settled by a compromise to raise the taxes on cigarettes another 5 cents and is expected to raise 40 million euros, the same as the admission fee. That went into effect on Jan. 1 but it wasn’t said if the revocation would be immediate nor whether those who had already paid it would be reimbursed as Greece frequently revises tax laws, often many times in the same year.
The Independent Greeks had earlier called for a vote on the fee and if enough PASOK lawmakers bolted it would have meant certain defeat for the government led by Samaras, the New Democracy Conservative leader, which has only a three-vote majority in the 300-member Parliament and could have even threatened the government.
By relenting, Samaras also avoids the embarrassment of a vote as Greece on Jan. 8 assumes the symbolic, powerless, rotating, six-month European Union Presidency.
Government officials have said that the country’s international lenders are not opposed to the charge being scrapped, but only on the condition that other revenue-raising measures are found.
The Health Ministry came under fire last week after an uninsured cancer patient died because he had been unable to find a public hospital that would treat him free of charge.
Georgiadis said there was no reason for the man not to be treated and suggested that his case was being exploited for “political reasons.” He didn’t explain, however, why the man was not admitted nor treated.
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