Policy Continuity and change in Greek pension and health sectors during the crisis

The examination of the reforms adopted in the pension and health sectors in Greece following the crisis have highlighted retrenchment as the dominant feature. Nonetheless, a simple focus on retrenchment provides only a partial understanding of the transformations taking place in the two sectors under study and their implications for the future structure of the two systems. Notwithstanding the fact that retrenchment has been the dominant feature associated with the fiscal consolidation effort undertaken in the context of the bailout agreements, other transformative processes have also taken place. In the case of pensions a shift towards a more unified structure is observed, accompanied by a hesitant shift to a multi-pillar system characterised by a reduction in public provision which is nonetheless not compensated by a strengthening of the second pillar. In the case of health recent reforms attest to the gradual withering away of the public system through its shift to residualism. The transformations observed in the two sectors have been made possible through the changes that have taken place in parallel in the policy making process. The latter has in particular been characterised by an unprecedented increase of the EU intrusiveness and the parallel decrease of the role and influence of social partners.