[The effects of economic crises on health care]

In September 2008, financial turmoil on Wall Street led to severe losses in that country's financial derivatives market and plunged the United States into the most severe financial crisis in over a decade. The backlash of this "financial tsunami" has affected countries around the world. The world economy, facing the most critical financial crisis since the 1930s, must deal with recession, severe unemployment and general fears of worse to come, which have, in turn, spawned a range of physical, psychological and spiritual problems. In this article we study the effects of the economic crisis on healthcare from several angles, including: decreasing incomes causing changing attitudes toward seeking healthcare; decreasing numbers of people covered by medical insurance; increasing impact on the job market of untreated illnesses; changing national healthcare policies in response to economic pressures; increasing physical, psychological and social problems resulting from economic problems; and the need for the nursing profession to respond to these and other rapid changes in the healthcare landscape. Nursing staff are sometimes unaware of social problems outside their profession. This article may, therefore, provide a general reference to medical and nursing staff on the effects of the economic crisis on healthcare.