Health “Brexternalities”: The Brexit Effect on Health and Health Care outside the United Kingdom

Abstract

The principal effects of Brexit on health and health care will fall within the United Kingdom, and all forms of Brexit have overwhelmingly negative implications for health care and health within the UK. This article focuses on the external effects of Brexit (“Brexternalities”) for health and health care. The EU is a particularly powerful institutional and legal arrangement for managing economic and political externalities in health policy as in any other policy. Equally, when a state leaves the EU, the manner of leaving will result in better or worse management of relevant externalities. Brexternalities thus involve questions about policy legitimacy and accountability. Health Brexternalities do not fall equally in all EU countries. They are felt more distinctly in the context of those elements of health policy that are most closely entwined with the UK's health policy (e.g., on the island of Ireland, certain areas of Spain, and other parts of southern Europe). Some health Brexternalities, such as in medicine safety, will be imposed on the whole population of the EU. And some health Brexternalities, such as communicable disease control, will be felt globally.

Assessing the potential impact on health of the UK's future relationship agreement with the EU: analysis of the negotiating positions

“…In this analysis, we are focusing only on the short-term effects in the months immediately post-transition (2021 into 2022), for health and social care in the UK. We have considered effects on health in the EU elsewhere (Hervey et al ., 2021). We have included possible interactions of the effects of COVID-19 with the effects of the UK leaving the EU.…”

Brexit and the NHS: voting behaviour and views on the impact of leaving the EU

“…Despite research that indicates that Brexit will have “overwhelmingly negative consequences for health care and health within the UK” (Hervey et al 2021 , p. 177), a relatively high proportion—over 40%—of public sector workers employed in Health and Social Care voted leave in the EU Referendum. This was around the same percentage as all those in employment and considerably higher than workers in several other sectors and industries, most notably Education, even after controlling for a range of personal characteristics.…”

“…Burdett and Fenge ( 2018 ) explore the impact of Brexit on community and practice nurses specifically and conclude that the uncertainties surrounding Brexit are likely to have slowed down the move towards the integration of health and social care provision. Hervey et al ( 2021 ) identify a number of areas in which Brexit can produce externalities for other countries. They categorise these into three types of health “Brexternalities”: those affecting part of the EU, those affecting all of the EU and those that have global effects.…”

From Being Literate about Health to Becoming Capable of Achieving Health: Health literacy capabilities of Zimbabwean school youth

“…Health states and outcomes of humans, animals and environments are thus significantly affected by both government action and inaction, especially in communities with limited access to resources. As such, political determinants affect all aspects of One Health (Hervey et al, 2021;Mayosi et al, 2014).…”