European Health Systems and the Internal Market: Reshaping Ideology?

Abstract

Departing from theories of distributive justice and their relation with the distribution of health care within society, especially egalitarianism and libertarianism, this paper aims at demonstrating that the approach taken by the European Court of Justice regarding the application of the Internal Market principles (or the market freedoms) to the field of health care services has introduced new values which are more concerned with a libertarian view of health care. Moreover, the paper also addresses the question of how these new values introduced by the Court may affect common principles of European health systems, such as equity and accessibility.

Analysis and determination the efficiency of the European health systems

“…The social welfare state created in the countries of the European Union reached its maximum development in the year 2007, before the start of the current economic crisis. One of the fundamental pieces for the consolidation of the social welfare state is ensuring adequate delivery of health care to the citizens . The authorities have allocated large amounts of resources to increase the health infrastructure and the implementation of policies for prevention and care to achieve full health coverage for the entire population .…”