The Social Insurance Institute ( el, Ίδρυμα Κοινωνικών Ασφαλίσεων, IKA) was the largest, state based,
social security
Welfare, or commonly social welfare, is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specifical ...
organization in
Greece
Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders ...
: its beneficiaries were 5,530,000 members of the Greek employed population and 830,000 pensioners.
It was established in 1934 with first director
Panagiotis Kanellopoulos
Panagiotis Kanellopoulos or Panayotis Kanellopoulos ( el, Παναγιώτης Κανελλόπουλος; 13 December 1902, in Patras, Achaea – 11 September 1986, in Athens) was a Greek writer, politician and Prime Minister of Greece. He w ...
. A common myth in Greece is that it was created by the
Metaxas regime
Metaxās or Metaxa may refer to:
Places
* Metaxas Line, fortifications in northeastern Greece in 1935–1940
* Metaxas, Greece, a village in the Greek region of Macedonia
* Metaxas Regime or 4th of August Regime, a short-lived authoritarian regim ...
(1936-1941), however in reality it was its function that began in 1937 while the establishment had already happened in 1934.
It maintained its own units for health service until 2012, when they were absorbed by EOPYY.
On 1 January 2017 was absorbed by EFKA, an organization which absorbed different social security funds.
Financial position
The IKA suffers from chronic financial difficulties. In 2009, it had to be supported by the state with 2.6 billion euros. However, press reports describing the IKA as a "black hole" whose collapse is imminent are denied.
Many pension frauds, which were uncovered in 2011, are regarded as one of the causes of the financial situation: After it was noticed that pensions were being transferred to over 9,000 pensioners over the age of 100, all pensioners had to report for personal identification. This revealed that 63,500 had died - some long ago - and that around 7 to 8 billion euros had been paid to relatives of the deceased in the last ten years. Furthermore, the Greek pension funds suffered heavy losses as a result of the haircut carried out to deal with the financial crisis, since they had invested around 8 billion euros in Greek government bonds. Because of the financial crisis, the Greek state has also frozen subsidies to hospitals and insurance companies. In the meantime, unpaid invoices for around two billion euros have accumulated, so that suppliers only supply state clinics against payment in advance and pharmacies only sell medicines against cash payment.
See also
*
Healthcare in Greece
References
External links
*http://www.ika.gr/
Medical and health organizations based in Greece
Welfare agencies
1934 establishments in Greece
Ioannis Metaxas
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