EU tables proposals for health single market

The European Commission says EU citizens will be allowed to opt to receive healthcare in any member state, under new proposals due in January that may help create a health single market.

The proposals would enable patients across the EU to opt to be treated in any member state, if the treatment is allowed in their own country.

If adopted, the proposals would help create a single healthcare market for citizens of the 27 countries within the EU bloc. Patients could be routinely travelling abroad for treatment by as early as 2010.

The proposals, originally due to be adopted on 18 December, are now due to be published in January, would mean that patients would have to pay up front for an operation in another EU country, but would then subsequently be reimbursed the cost.

The blueprint on "application of patients rights in cross border healthcare", sets out clear rules on who is responsible for covering the costs and secure quality of medical treatment of Europeans provided in a member state other than their own.

Under the proposals, national governments are expected to have control over what treatment is permissible overseas. Hospital treatment will need a prior clearance from the country’s health ministry, but not outpatient services.

The new proposals are linked to a European legal ruling last year which said patients should be reimbursed for receiving care abroad if there are "undue delays" in getting treatment in their own country.

Yvonne Watts, asked the National Health Service to repay her the £3,900 she paid for a hip replacement surgery in France, rather than wait 12-months for the procedure in the UK. When the NHS refused to pay her back Watts took the case to the European Court of Justice, which ruled in her favour.

The European Commission says the primary responsibility for providing healthcare would still rest with a patient’s national government. However, it also says in certain instances healthcare may be better provided in another member state, such as for rare conditions of in the case of border regions.

One of the objectives of the European Commission’s Information Society Directorate General e-health strategy is to develop standards for interoperable electronic health records for patients, which would enable patients to more easily travel and receive treatment in other EU countries.

Such objectives appear currently to have low priority for the UK government. Asked in parliament this week what discussions ministers have had with their EU counterparts about electronic patient record sharing across Europe, health minister Dawn Primarolo said: “There have been no recent discussions at ministerial level on electronic patient record—sharing across Europe.”