00:00In Yanouli, just outside Larissa, in Central Greece,
00:06a local health clinic helps patients get better access to health care.
00:24Across the European Union, health care is meant to be a right, not a privilege.
00:28But for many, getting the care they need is still a struggle.
00:32In Greece, a new approach is helping bridge that divide.
00:45Vasiliki is a former caregiver and municipal employee.
00:49For years, she has been struggling with several health issues, including diabetes.
00:53Vasiliki has no private insurance and depends on public health care, which can be challenging.
01:21A year ago, she began visiting this local health unit in Yanouli.
01:25Across Greece, 127 local health units, known as TOMI, have been set up to bring health care closer to disadvantaged communities.
01:45Since 2019, this Yanouli unit has been treating around 100 patients a day,
01:51focusing on the poor, the uninsured, the elderly, and those with chronic illnesses.
01:56Of course, the local health unit has been created in Greece for a long-term care.
02:02Untertitelung des ZDF für funk, 2017
02:322.5 Millionen Euro from the European Social Fund Plus.
02:36This funding supports key health services for the entire community,
02:40including vaccination campaigns for undocumented migrants.
03:02We want to feel close to them, we want to feel like a family.
03:11We are open to talk about whatever issue they want and need.
03:17From 2021 to 2027, the EU and its member countries are spending 2.4 billion euros
03:29to help make healthcare and essential services accessible to all.
03:33A strategy welcomed by this Brussels-based expert on health inequality.
03:39Health inequalities means that health is very much related to social disadvantage.
03:45So many people still face obstacles to achieving good health.
03:50And these obstacles are related to poverty, to social exclusion, to discrimination.
03:54And that then affects also how people are using services.
03:58We see that the commercialisation of healthcare risks widening health inequalities.
04:05And certainly, and that was also a nice report that was being published by the European Commission,
04:10that demonstrates that health insurance and coverage of healthcare expenditures
04:18is as important as, for example, unemployment benefits.
04:22So it's really very important for our social model to make sure
04:26that the access to health services is covered adequately for vulnerable people.
04:33Across Europe, the COVID pandemic has reinforced the idea that healthcare must be a top priority in the EU
04:43and that everyone deserves equal access.
04:46The healthcare approach here in central Greece is not just treating patients.
04:50It's giving people confidence, strengthening communities, and making society a little more equal.
