Health systems governance in Europe: the role of European Union law and policy

Abstract

This volume assesses the impact of European Union (EU) policy and law on Member States' health systems and their governance in a number of key areas. In so doing, it builds on two earlier books 1 that sought to assess the changing legal and policy dynamics for health care in the wake of the European Court of Justice's (ECJ) seminal rulings in the Kohll and Decker cases. 2 These books showed that, despite widely held views to the contrary, national health care systems in the EU were not as shielded from the infl uence of EU law as originally thought. 3 The explicit stipulations of Article 152 EC (as amended by the Amsterdam Treaty) that health is an area of specifi c Member State competence, and implicit understanding of the subsidiarity principle where policy is undertaken at the lowest level appropriate to its effective implementation, proved not to be the 'guarantees' of no EU interference in national health care services that they were often held to be. As the raft of legal cases and degree of academic attention that followed have shown, Kohll and Decker were certainly not the 'one-offs' many policy-makers hoped they would be. 4 In fact,

Crossborder trade in health services: Lessons from the European laboratory

“…The relationship between EU health policy and law has been explored in several major works [27][28][29]. Compared to international trade law on GATS, EU health policies are relatively detailed and include a substantial number of rulings by the European Court of Justice (ECJ).…”

Implementing Social Europe in Times of Crises: Re-established Boundaries of Welfare?

“…A EUR-lex advanced search informs us that in 2009, 43 binding norms existed in the field of health protection. In addition, major health issues, such as cancer and BSE, the free movement of health workers and products and engaging EU actors, have induced a patchy European health policy since the 1990s (Mossialos et al 2010;Vollaard et al 2013) Thus, from a historical perspective, social Europe has had its landmark achievements and developed a Community space of social sharing more strongly than originally intended by the member states (Falkner 2010;Ferrera 2005;Hemerijck 2013). Market correcting and non-discrimination dynamics have enhanced the scope of social rights within the EU.…”

Balancing economic freedom against social policy principles: EC competition law and national health systems

“…This refers to the Commission's limited ability to perform two of the fundamental roles of the modern state: redistribution and stabilization. Lacking the power to implement the type of market correcting or cushioning public policies synonymous with these goals, decision making at the EU level thus commonly finds itself reduced to considerations under its default position as an economic regulator [4]. Therefore a conflict of interest is created between Member States who provide services based on principles of solidarity on the one hand, and the supranational bodies charged with guaranteeing the freedom of the single market on the other.…”