From Crisis to Opportunity? Recalibrating Health Care in Southern Europe in the Wake of the Pandemic

Since the mid-2000s Southern European welfare states had to face two major challenges: (a) the financial crisis of 2007-2008, followed by austerity policies and a “Great Recession, Keywords: COVID-19, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain, health care, recalibration, Southern Europe and (b) the COVID-19 pandemic. This chapter focuses on the health care sector in Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain. At the outbreak of the pandemic, the public per capita expenditure in health care was lower in Southern Europe than in North-Western Europe. The chapter analyzes whether the public health crisis brought about by the pandemic and the recovery prospects-particularly under the Next Generation EU (NGEU) plan-represent a Keywords: COVID-19, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain, health care, recalibration, Southern Europecritical junctureKeywords: COVID-19, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain, health care, recalibration, Southern Europe for health care policy change. Our main findings indicate a variegated picture of piecemeal recalibration trends that, however, fall short of addressing some long-overdue challenges in a comprehensive way.