Cross-border Health Care and the House of Lords Report

We are big fans of the reports of the British House of Lords Select Committee on the European Union.

The recent report entitled "Healthcare across EU borders: a safe framework", available here or here in pdf format, is well worth reading.

The Commission recently made a proposal for a directive on the application of patients' rights in cross-border health care (COM (2008) 414). That proposal naturally follows from the Court of Justice judgments in Case C-158/96 Kohll v. Union des Caisses des Maladies, Case C-120/95 Decker v. Caisse de maladie des employés privés and Case C-372/04 Watts v. Bedford Primary Care Trust which we noted here.

The House of Lords Select Committee report, which is a very full one, reaches a number of conclusions and in particular

"Article 49, within which the freedom to receive healthcare services falls, forms one of the fundamental freedoms of the Community and is one of the key principles underpinning the internal market. Article 95 is the legal base for measures which have as their object the establishment and functioning of the internal market. Article 152(5) states clearly that Member States retain full responsibility for the organisation and delivery of health services and medical care. We agree that Article 95 is the appropriate legal base for the Directive but emphasise the principle embodied in Article 152(5) and urge the European institutions to ensure that Member States' responsibility for the organisation and delivery of health services is fully respected in the negotiation and implementation of this Directive."

The House of Lords Committee also recalls the 2006 "Common values and principles in EU-health systems - Council conclusions" available at page 33 of the document here.

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