Our View: The tooth affair uncovers society’s blatant inequalities

DEPUTY Attorney-general Akis Papasavvas will return on Monday the €17,000 paid by the health ministry for his tooth implants. While insisting he had done nothing wrong and claiming that all the proper procedures had been followed, he announced he will return the money because the episode was being used as an excuse to attack President Christofias and the now retired acting permanent secretary of the ministry.
But despite Papasavvas’ protestations that everything was done by the book, nobody can be certain that was the case until the investigation into the affair is completed. Health Minister Christos Patsalides said the return of the money was not the end of the matter, as there were still questions pending such as the disappearance of all documents from the case file, the suspect procedures followed as well as the justification used for approving the treatment.
From what has been said, applications for tooth implants had never before been approved by the health ministry and they would want to keep it this way. Papasavvas’ case set a precedent and other members of the privileged group that are the public sector employees could apply to the ministry for tooth implants, which are essentially cosmetic treatment, in private clinics. It would appear that not all members of this privileged class are guaranteed equal treatment by the state, when only the deputy Attorney-general is entitled to have his tooth implants paid for by the taxpayer.
This sordid affair has brought to light an even bigger inequality in our society. When public sector employees are approved for medical treatment abroad the full cost – air fares, hospital fees and accommodation – is paid by the state regardless of how much the patient earns. In the case of second class citizens (private sector workers) there are income criteria and the patient pays part of the cost for treatment abroad, even if his annual income is a third of the public employee’s.
It is the same discrimination that takes place at state hospitals. A second class citizen whose total family earnings are in excess of €22,000 per year has to pay for treatment at state hospitals. A public employee whose family income could be in excess of €100,000 per year pays absolutely nothing – medicine is free as well.
In a sense, Papasavvas, as a first class citizen, did little more than exercise his right to privileged treatment, enjoyed by all state employees. Being a high-earning, high-powered state official, he felt he was entitled to greater privileges than ordinary public employees, which was not unreasonable of him.
As for the rest of us – the second class citizens of this state – we should simply accept that in Cyprus, like in Orwell’s Animal Farm, some animals are more equal than others.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.