- UK MEP paves the way for easier cross border patient care
- New soft laws for health should be clear on EU complementary role
- De-Regulated health market would not boost economy says report
- Commission defends country of origin principle
- Commission ready to act if junk food industry continues to target children
London Conservative MEP, John Bowis has set out a course of action to ease restrictions on patient mobility within the EU.
His report is being considered by the European Parliament’s Environment and Health Committee. He rejects the Commission’s horizontal approach of liberalising all services, including health when patient mobility is best dealt with by DG Sanco – the Commission’s department for health.
He says, “It is.not clear why other parts of the Commission have been allowed to tinker with health services in the draft General Services Directive. It would be better from patients’, professionals’ and policymakers’ points of view to deal separately and comprehensively with issues of patient and professional mobility”
Mr Bowis’ report is in response to last years’ Commission Communication, “Follow-up to the high level reflection process on patient development on patient mobility and healthcare developments in the European Union (COM(2004)0301). The Commission advocated a High Level Group on Health Services and Medical Care, which would facilitate co-ordination for cross-border treatment.
Bowis welcomes many of the measures proposed by the Commission but has called for a timetable for action and wants deadlines for the collection of data
on existing cross-border patient
Movements. He also wants the Commission to report on the nature of health tourism and how reimbursements would work in practice.
The report also calls for progress reports on an EU-wide register for doctors suspended or struck-off for malpractice or incompetence.
While supportive of the Commission’s work on patient mobility, he believes there needs to be a separate Commission proposal and should not be included in the Services Directive.
He notes how the E1-11 is being superseded by the new European Health Card but also that there is a need to replace the E1-12 for planned health care treatment
New soft laws for health should be clear on EU complementary role
German Christian Democrat MEP, Thomas Ulmer believes the Commission’s proposals for soft laws on closer co-operation between national healthcare systems should be clearer about Member State’s exclusive responsibility for their healthcare systems.
In his report to the Environment and Health Committee, Ulmer says, “there is no explicit reference to the complementary nature of the open method of co-ordination.
The Open Method of Co-ordination proposed for health care and long term care is a sensitive issue, since it aims to provide for intensive co-operation between healthcare systems with a view to harmonisation of standards and practices without using legislation. The EU has no legislative powers for the delivery of healthcare systems.
Milan Cabrnoch MEP – a doctor from the Czech Republic was less critical in his report to the Employment Committee (19 January). The Employment Committee is the lead committee for these proposals.
The deadline for amendments in the Environment Committee is on 15 February with a vote in committee on 15th March. The Employment Committee will vote on the Cabroch Report on 31st March.
De-Regulated health market would not boost economy says report
An EU-Commissioned Report on competitiveness has delivered a blow to the European Commission's proposals to bring the health sector into the internal market.
The Competitiveness Report says that de-regulation does not improve the efficiency of healthcare systems. The Commission has proposed a new directive that would de-regulate services in the EU - including the health service in its bid to boost the economy. The Commission, controversially, labelled health as a service of economic interest - which means any national barriers to "trade”, will have to be removed in order to create a genuine European internal market for healthcare.
Now, an independent report says that while providing incentives may enhance efficiency, the US model shows that competition and de-regulation does not bring about efficiency.
In the EU-15, the health sector's output is about 7%. Many Commission officials believe that health services are untapped markets and if de-regulated, could provide a boon to the economy - in the same way the telecom sector did when it was de-regulated in the 1980's and 1990's.
However the Competitiveness Report, which has a detailed section on the healthcare sector casts serious doubts on the Commission's reasons for including health in the directive.
Commission defends country of origin principle
The European Commission defended the controversial Country of Origin Principle, on which the Services Directive is based. The principle means that if a service is based in one EU country, it should be safe and acceptable enough to be provided in another EU state - without having to recognise the rules of the state where the service is provided. A Commission official told the European Parliament's Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee that this would be necessary to create an internal market for a Union of 25 different countries.
The Committee met on 19th January when they listened to the Committee's Rapporteur on this Directive, German Socialist Evelyne Gebhardt spell out her concerns. While she is broadly supportive of the Commission's intentions, she questioned why the directive applied to all sectors across the board and whether it might be better to apply measures on a sector-by-sector basis.
UK Conservative, Malcolm Harbour MEP spoke in favour of the legislation given that its aim is administrative simplification.
Many MEPs argued in favour of excluding health from the directive. Finnish MEP, Anneli Jaatteenmaki said that liberalisation of the pharmaceutical sector in Norway did not bring prices down as intended and now pharmacies are concentrated in the hands of a few and are more difficult to access in remote areas.
Belgian Socialist, Mia de Vits and UK Labour MEP, Arlene McCarthy also spoke in favour of carving out health.
Gebhardt aims to have her Report ready by March. Two Working Groups will be set up to look at the question of the health sector, the posting of workers and the country of origin.
Commission ready to act if junk food industry continues to target children
The new EU Commissioner for Health, Markos Kyprianou gave notice to irresponsible food companies that target children with unhealthy foods.
In an interview with the Financial Times, the Cypriot said he would resort to legislation if the industry cannot regulate itself. The Commission can use the same internal market rules that led to banned newspaper tobacco advertising.
He also urged for clearer labelling by food manufacturers. Mr Kyprianou recently resurrected legislative proposals on misleading health claims made by food companies. Alexander Stubb MEP recently tabled a report to the Internal Market Committee on the Commission’s controversial proposals.