EU legislation offers hope for cross-border healthcare
New legislation going through the EU system has the potential to prevent some of these tragedies at least.
Members of the European Parliament voted the new Cross-Border Health Care draft through during the week. But this is just the first reading and the details have yet to be fully trashed out between the member states.
This is where it gets deep and dirty. MEPs, more focused on giving the public what it wants, favour a system where people can easily get their health treatment in another member state while national governments are firmly focused on budgets.
Cross-border health care has been the right of EU citizens in theory, but getting it in practice has proved very difficult. As a result the European Court of Justice has been asked to rule on specific issues three times over the past decade. As a result of their rulings, the European Commission drew up new legislation after consulting national departments of health, health professionals and anybody else interested in submitting their opinion.
A number of Irish organisations did — the Irish Nurses Organisation, the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland, the Alpha One Foundation, the Women’s Health Council and the Centre for Cross Border Studies.
The Government’s contribution was brief, offering no imaginative solutions, but stating bluntly that Ireland’s health service was supply-led rather than shaped by the demand and that a patient must get approval before travelling for any treatment if the state is to pay.
The Czech presidency say they want political agreement on the new legislation before the end of June with the possibility that the resulting compromise draft would return to the European Parliament for its second reading in the autumn and become law within a year.
It is the kind of thing MEPs going for election in a few weeks time could be expected to support, but the Socialists, the second largest group in the parliament, abstaining in the vote gives a clue as to the difficulties that lie ahead for this legislation.
Generally member states do not want to have to pay for treatment provided by other member states. Most would prefer to keep people on a waiting list at home and provide the service when the money and time slot arose.
They have won the first round in this battle since the legislation comes under the internal market part of the EC Treaty where the emphasis is on the commercial side, and not under public health where countries responsibilities would be wider. But the argument that opening up to greater co-operation between EU states would save money and lives is unlikely to hold much weight with member states, especially in the grip of an economic crisis.
Ireland has some experience of co-operating in health treatment with Britain and Northern Ireland. But the reality does not augur well for any co-operation with EU partners further afield.
The Cross-Border Studies Council set this out clearly during the week when Dr Patricia Clarke said that those in charge of health are focused on bureaucratic and financial objectives rather the needs of patients. She is hoping that some studies now commissioned will show that greater co-operation cross-border can do much to improve the service and reduce costs of the close to €11 billion spent a year both North and South.
In the meantime the Irish and most other EU governments will battle it out at EU level to ensure there are as many bureaucratic obstacles erected to patients travelling abroad for their medical treatment.
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