EU health ministers agree deal on cross-border care

GETTING medical treatment in another EU member state will be easier and more straight-forward for Irish patients after health ministers agreed new rules on cross-border healthcare.

But the national health authority will still be able to limit the number of cases where they will reimburse the costs for patients, under the deal reached in Luxembourg.

While any EU citizen holding an E111 health card is entitled to emergency treatment when visiting another EU country, member states have been battling against health tourism for years.

People going to other EU countries for medical care amount to just about 1% of the total and account for about €10 billion of the member states’ €1,000bn health spending, but the number is expected to increase.

The European Court of Justice rulings have progressively extended peoples’ rights to cross-border healthcare over the past few years. But while most countries have been happy enough for their residents to receive treatment elsewhere, they have been reluctant to pay for it, and to pay for treating those from other countries.

In Ireland, patients generally have to get prior authorisation before they qualify to recoup the cost of their treatment from the HSE.

Three years ago a survey showed that 5.4% of the population had received medical treatment in another EU country in the previous 12 months – the fourth highest number in the EU.

Now health ministers have agreed that, in general, patients will be allowed to receive healthcare in another member state and be reimbursed – though they will just be entitled to the same amount of money as the care would have cost them in their home state.

But any country can impose conditions on their citizens being reimbursed by, for instance, insisting that they are referred by a physician or that they first receive permission in advance for any procedure that would require such conditions as an overnight stay in hospital or the need for highly specialised and cost-intensive medical infrastructure.

Irish people are among the top three willing to travel for treatment, according to an EU survey, but the biggest reason they gave for not doing so is a lack of information.

Now each country will have to provide a national contact point for patients coming from other EU member states where they can request information on safety and quality standards, for instance, to allow them make an informed choice.

The agreement is good news for pensioners who have retired to live in another EU country. Now the country where they are living will be responsible for reimbursing the cost of cross-border healthcare. If they return to their home country for treatment, they will be covered locally.

The European Parliament agreed the cross-border legislation last year but the member states could not agree the final details until now.

Once the new compromise has been adopted by the MEPs it should become national law soon afterwards.