One of the largest measures taken by the previous government to cut expenditure, reducing healthcare benefits, has had little impact.
If circumstances had remained unchanged, the measure would have produced a saving of €548 million out of a calculated cut of €600 million. Owing to the economic downturn, however, healthcare benefits fell by just €98 million in 2012 relative to the expenditure projected without the measure. On balance, there was a setback in healthcare benefits of €502 million in 2012. This has led to a deterioration in the budget deficit of 0.08% of gross domestic product.
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