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Publishers Abstract:
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has embarked on a policy of strengthening the rights of EU citizens to obtain treatment in other Member States. This paper argues for a more sensitive consideration of the notion of social solidarity in health care and urges greater caution by the ECJ in its extension of health care rights. Social citizenship may be said to confer positive rights to a minimum standard of living relative to others and rights to education, economic support and security. The principle of solidarity dominates health care in much of Western Europe. Investment in health care has to be the product of well-formulated public policy committed to promoting public interests. If health authorities are obliged to divert finite resources to some individuals without regard to the impact on others, public policy will be undermined.
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