The World

There is no doubt that there are lots of people suffering in Greece. The FT and other newspapers have carried stories about people losing their jobs, having their pensions cut and being forced to rely on charity. But the villains in this piece are not primarily greedy foreign bondholders or mean-spirited German politicians. One of the main reasons that Greece is in a bad way is that its government and its budget have been captured by interest groups that have funnelled money and resources in the wrong direction. Changing this culture might be painful for some in the short-run. In the long-run, it is the route to national regeneration.

The health-care reforms that are going through parliament today are a fine example.

If the reforms are enacted, they will save billions of euros by compelling the Greek health-service to treat its patients with generic drugs, rather than expensive branded drugs. This should have no effect on patient care. But it will make life a little less lucrative for the powerful lobbies of pharmacists and doctors. Good. There is no reason why the Greek taxpayer should pay for unnecessaarily expensive drugs. And there is absolutely no reason why the German or Dutch taxpayers should do so.

There are plenty of Greek citizens who know that the country is full of rackets like this – from construction to farming to the law to taxi-drivers. If, under European pressure, these lobbies are taken on and beaten - that will be great news for Greece.

A comment beneath our story on the health-care reforms by “Greek taxpayer” puts it better than I can, so let me just reproduce it:

“A small group of protesters burned a Nazi flag”. The important point here is  “a small group”, i.e. a small, irrelevant group, not “sentiment in Greece”. What  would have been a much more interesting point for this article to make is the  fact that Greek doctors in the national health service prescribe over 8 billion  euros of medicines a year for a population of a little under 11 million. It’s  the activities of that small group, and the tyranny their syndicate holds over  the political world, that the FT should be reporting on. The other shocking  thing is that it is only now that they are being obliged to use lower-cost  drugs, after two years of so-called austerity. And why present this as “cuts”  and not as “savings” or a “reduction in waste” or “tackling corruption”, which  is what is is, because 10 million people don’t need 8 billion euros wort of  medicine a year.

These are “harsh measures” everyone can welcome.