Claims by Health Minister Paulo Macedo that Portugal’s health needs have been met during the recession may partly be explained by recent research showing that one in ten of Portugal’s sick cannot afford to access healthcare.
Portugal's health service “managed to improve health indicators, despite budgetary restrictions,” said Macedo at a conference in Sabrossa, Vila Real in February and that "it was possible to meet the needs of the Portuguese through the longest ever crisis."
However, a study undertaken by researchers at Lisbon’s New University said that 10% are prevented on economic grounds from accessing healthcare and 16% of people no longer bought medicines prescribed by doctors because of the high cost of doing so.
Last year each Portuguese worker missed on average five days of work, which amounts to a loss of €2 billion compared to a health budget of €9 billion.
Almost half of the Portuguese surveyed by the University researchers considered that poor health affected their quality of life and their productivity at work, but 10% said could not afford to take prescribed drugs.
Struggling through despite illness leads to unproductive workers and the healthcare figures referred to by Macedo do not encompass those citizens that simply are too poor to go to the doctor.
