At the same time, an additional side effect of people’s inability to cover their insurance contributions because of unemployment and the undeclared work was the loss of their insurance coverage (and family dependents). It is worth noting that between 2008–2012, one out of three insured members in the two largest insurance organizations (IKA and OAEE) lost their health insurance eligibility . The large increment in the number of uninsured citizens has in turn resulted in limited or no access to medical care and pharmaceuticals exacerbating the inequalities in health care provision and increasing out-of-pocket expenses . It is notable that the share of household payments to public hospitals over the total household health expenditure rose substantially by 86% in the four-year period 2008–2012 (4.2% vs 7.8%) .