Скачать или смотреть Austerity-hit healthcare leaves disabled Greeks stranded (by RT)

Video & script produced by FreeVideo.RT.com
Date Shot: June 27, 2012 / Location: Athens, Greece

Shotlist:

1. Wide: disabled man begging. 00:00-00:07
2. SOUNDBITE, Anna Evangelinou, editor of Autonomia magazine (http://www.disabled.gr/):
"The new government is definitely bound to the second bailout that means it has to cut public spending up to a further 11.5 billion euros." 00:07-00:31

3. Close-up: shots of the website http://www.disabled.gr/. 00:31-00:36

4. SOUNDBITE, Sophia Kitra, a public sector economist (speaking English):
"It's really difficult to have a health problem in Greece today." 00:36-00:41
5. Wide and mid: Sophia Kitra sitting, talking. 00:41-00:51
6. SOUNDBITE, Sophia Kitra, a public sector economist (speaking English):
"I'm lucky because I have money from my job but other people cannot even get their medications from the pharmacy, I get medicine that costs around 400 or 500 euro a month so if you don't get this money, you cannot get your medications." 00:51-01:15

7. SOUNDBITE, Militadis Varvitsiotis, MP (speaking English):
"This is because in the military we don't have as much fat to cut as we do in the social systems, in the healthcare we had lots of fat to cut. Greece is not a country that can stay without an active army." 01:15-01:38

STORY

Dealing with the problems facing disabled Greeks on a daily basis, Anna is all too familiar with the realities of Eurozone-backed austerity.

"The new government is definitely bound to the second bailout that means it has to cut public spending up to a further 11.5 billion euros," says Anna Evangelinou, editor-in-chief of Autonomia magazine (produced by the Greek non-profit supportive organisation DISABILITY NOW - http://www.disabled.gr/).
She points out it's been three months since anyone has been paid vital disability benefits.

"It's really difficult to have a health problem in Greece today," says Sophia Kitra, a public sector economist.
Fighting a long-term battle with multiple sclerosis, Sophia is now without state support. A crippled healthcare system has left her out on her own.
"I'm lucky because I have money from my job but other people cannot even get their medications from the pharmacy, I get medicine that costs around 400 or 500 euro a month so if you don't get this money, you cannot get your medications," says Sophia.

Austerity-fueled state cutbacks often prove the toughest on those who need the money the most. Cases like Sophia's are by no means unique in modern day Greece. But one question is now being asked of the government is it down to a simple lack of state funds or are they misspending what little they do have.

The newly formed government is largely made up of old factions. New Democracy and the Pasok party made up the ruling coalition of the previous administration- presiding over a period of cuts where the military remained somewhat shielded.

In 2010 as debt ridden Greece penned its first bailout deal it signed away 1 billion euros to France and Germany in weapons contracts.
But even with no obvious conflict looming, it's an expenditure still defended.
"This is because in the military we don't have as much fat to cut as we do in the social systems, in the healthcare we had lots of fat to cut. Greece is not a country that can stay without an active army," says Militadis Varvitsiotis, MP.

But given the current plight of many Greeks it appears there's nothing left to axe form healthcare.

On the back of public pressure the new government is now seeking a reworking of the bailout conditions.
But whilst the Sun may have set on Greece's latest round of political instability, its economic troubles are still very much under the spotlight.