Austerity: A Failed Experiment on the People

Austerity policies strike at the heart of the European model of the welfare state and threaten to undo decades of progress. Already we find severe consequences for public health in Europe.

Suicide and HIV rates across Europe are rising. Vulnerable populations like sex workers and people who use drugs are particularly affected, and several countries are withdrawing health coverage for undocumented migrants. In Greece, malaria is re-emerging, birth outcomes are deteriorating, and essential drugs are in short supply.

In this hard-hitting talk, Martin McKee discusses the real origins of the financial crisis, the intellectual underpinnings of austerity, austerity’s alarming health consequences and why we should have expected them, and what can be done to alleviate them. McKee, a professor of European public health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, challenges the public health community to realize their demand that health have a place in all public policies.