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After the cost of insurance funds for medicines has only increased over the last ten years then a significant reduction of around 10% was registered in 2010 and over 20% for the first quarter of 2011. This is the only good news that came from the report presented by the chairman of the federation of employees in social policy organisations Thanasis Tsakanikas during the 27^th regular congress of the organization.

The rest of the figures, however, indicate that unemployment is increasing, more and more taxpayers are reluctant to declare their income, the work on the black is increasing and many employees in the insurance funds are retiring, which is slowing down the operation of the service.

The chairman of the union of civil servants Spiros Papaspirou spoke at the Congress and said that there is no way back for the government policy and redundancies are expected after the introduction of the new payment schemes. According to the secretary of the federation of employees at IKA Ioana Tsaparikou, one million people work on the black and as a result the insurance funds lose 5 billion annually. Despite the reductions in salaries by 25% and the increase in inflation by 5%, the people that the unions represent do not respond and do not participate in the protests, noted Tsaparikou.
 
According to the Statistical Service, the unemployment in Greece is currently 15.9% and the number of the registered unemployed exceeds 787,000 people, but at the end of the year their number is expected to reach more than 1.1 million people or 21% of the population. As a result of the unemployment the insurance system loses about 4 billion a year, said Tsakanikas.

The other serious problem is tax evasion, which has taken uncontrollable dimensions in recent years. This is largely due to the lack of controls, lack of incentives for insurance, to the widespread black working, the flexible labour relations, and the financial problems of the companies. Typical is the case with the farmers’ fund, where tax evasion reached 40%, which is equal to a loss of 750 million euros, said the chairman of the Hellenic federation of the employees in social organizations. At the same time, the funds would lose revenue of about 800 million euros a year because of the reductions in salaries by 6% -7% for 2011.
 
Besides the reduced revenue, the insurance funds are facing operating problems and Tsakanikas said that there is "an organisational chaos and decay, as never before". According to data from all the insurance funds, a total of 3,700 people left by the end of 2010 and the retiring trends continue. The consequences are serious delays in the granting of pensions and refunds to hospitals for treatment. The time for the payment of the first pension has increased and is currently in the range between 7 and 15 months after the submission of the documents. The most dramatic is the case with the civil servants fund where the delays last three years and there are 39,000 pending applications. Lawyers and engineers receive their pensions the fastest.

The only good news is that the costs for medicines of each insurance fund have decreased for the first time in ten years of increase. To be more specific, IKA’s cost for medicines decreased by 29.32%, of the farmers’ fund – by 21.14%, of the civil servants fund – by 19.33% and of the freelancers’ fund – by 24.95%. The cost reduction is due to two reasons. The first is that the prices of medicines have dropped by 20% from June 2010 and the second is that the electronic prescription system is operating and 50% of the doctors at the freelancers’ fund are using it.

According to Tsakanikas, the conditions in the funds could be improved only if attention is paid to the following areas:

- To plan the work and re-organize the services in the insurance funds so that to be able to respond to the increased needs and to facilitate the everyday life of citizens.

- To increase the control in order to reduce tax evasion and to fight the black labour market

- All insurance funds to start using the electronic prescription system

- To use the assets of the insurance funds in a proper way

- To implement policies to protect labour and to create new jobs, in order to limit the increase in unemployment

Employees of the freelancers’ fund who were in the audience violently protested against the policy of the trade unions and left the hall, where the congress was held. They insist in a petition that new employees should be hired permanently, the salaries and pensions should be increased, and that no sacrifices should be made to pay the debt but a redistribution of wealth.