EU for the patients: developments, impacts, challenges

Abstract:

Healthcare is one of the core policy areas of the welfare state which for a long time has been regarded as unaffected by the process of European integration. However, healthcare has increasingly been subjected to the principles of the internal market during the last ten years.

This report seeks to analyse this development and the challenges this change entails. The report also addresses to what extent different national healthcare models are affected by increasing patient mobility and which factors, in addition to the legal framework, influence mobility. Finally, the report looks at the positions of a number of different member states on the issue of healthcare integration in a European context.