European Plan Would Expand Health Care Access Within the Bloc

[depakid]

Source: NY Times

People living within the European Union will be able to receive most health care treatment anywhere in the 27-nation bloc without getting prior authorization if a long-awaited proposal published on Wednesday becomes law.

Postponed for months because of fears in some countries of a large-scale increase in “health tourism,” the plan could extend options to European residents who live in countries where waiting lists are long.

But the entitlement applies only to procedures that are publicly financed in European residents’ home countries, and reimbursement would be only up to the amount the procedure would cost in that country.

The small print of the draft also allows countries to introduce a system under which their residents abroad would require prior authorization before seeking in-hospital overnight treatment and some outpatient treatments, like cataract operations.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/03/world/europe/03health...

[pinto]

1. On first read, seems like a good move to broader access for health care.

[dipsydoodle]

2. I note that the article contains the usual misleading statement

In Britain, where medical services are provided by the state without health insurance...............

In your dreams - it's a significant part of our taxation system. The strength of the system however, which was part of its original purpose, is to provide healthcare for all in the UK including those not contributing.

What has changed over the years are the safegaurds necessary to help ensure that freeloaders don't enter the UK for the sole purpose of expensive healthcare, to which they are not entitled , free of charge - that doesn't include EU citizens because there are already crossover agreements in place.

[comtec]

3. I defy you to point to any study that shows this as a serious problem

A peer-reviewed study, not some thatcher-loving bullshit, but a REAL study that shows this being seriously abused!
I don't doubt that there is a small number of people doing this, but there is no way that it's a serious burden.
besides...the UK is a HOLE! If they want to abuse a medical system they're better off going to Sweden, beautiful girls, landscape, excellent health care, and people have all their teeth!

[DFW]

4. This could spell serious trouble, but not as proposed (yet).

Here in Germany, where health care is pretty good, the system will be
overwhelmed and bankrupt if a hundred thousand Romanians and Bulgarians
show up because they don't trust their doctors at home. But I read some
of the fine print. It's not as much of a handout as the headlines imply.

At least in the article I read, a citizen of the EU in another country has
to pay up front if in another EU country, and will be reimbursed in their
own country upon presenting the bill, but only up to an amount representing
the cost of said care in their own country. If they go to Sweden or Germany,
and the bill is twice what it would have been in Bulgaria, they do not get
the other half back. This will either flop or get worked over a number of
times before it even gets considered for enactment EU-wide.