Web-economic-crisis-health-systems-and-health-web

Chapter 1
The impact of the crisis on the health
system and health in Belgium
Irina Cleemput, Joeri Guillaume, Carine Van de Voorde and Anna Maresso
Introduction
The international economic crisis began in Belgium in 2008, as it did for
other European countries, but its effects on public sector spending were not
immediately or deeply felt for several reasons, including having a caretaker
government in place between June 2010 and December 2011, a period in
which major policy decisions could not be taken. However, in 2012, the
new government had to implement a package of austerity measures to make
€11.3 billion worth of public sector savings, of which €2.3 billion were in the
health sector.
Prior to 2012, the health budget had been cushioned from any cuts by two
factors: the existence of a long-standing and generous growth cap, which
effectively guaranteed a 4.5% annual increase in the health budget every year;
and the existence until 2012 of health budget surpluses that could be drawn
from. In 2012, no growth cap was applied, and given the new economic climate,
much smaller ones were applied in 2013 and 2014. Despite these favourable
circumstances, the impact of the crisis from 2012 galvanized policy-makers
into realizing that the status quo was no longer an option and that efficiency
measures were needed in the health care sector. At the same time, attention
was paid to maintaining and enhancing financial protection mechanisms for
economically vulnerable groups.