One of the best stories I’ve heard out of Greece in past six months....had to do with gov’t health insurance drugs.
They had a pharmacy guy who had a couple of folks who needed insulin. Course, no one in Greece manufactures insulin (it ought to make you wonder why). In previous years....the pharmacy would order a shipment out of Europe, on credit, and provide to the consumer with the doctor’s note. The European company would get their money in approximatey 90 days after delivery.
Well....things have changed. The European companies wanted cash or electronic credit....before they’d ship now. So here was the pharmacy guy calling his customers, and asking them to come by and pay him cash. The common Greek guy was already being squeezed with late payments for his social security or late payments from his teaching job....so he’d have to flip his budget and cough up cash to cover this. The payment back from the gov’t? No one was sure...it might be the typical 90 days before the consumer got his money....maybe 180 days. The curious thing was that the pharmacy had few if any drugs...I’m guessing strictly what was manufactured in Greece, and you couldn’t buy anything unless you paid cash.