EU-wide health insurance card to be launched, February 2003

1 June 2004 will see the launch of a Europe-wide health insurance card, if proposals put forward by the European Commission on 17 February are adopted. Welcoming the initiative, the European Commissioner responsible for social affairs, Anna Diamantopoulou, said that the card 'will make it easier and quicker for EU citizens to obtain healthcare when staying temporarily in another Member State' and added that it will also 'have a powerful symbolic value: after the euro, the European health card is another piece of Europe in your pocket.'

The proposals - contained in a Commission Communication - follow a decision by EU leaders at the March 2002 Barcelona European Council to create a European health insurance card. The decision to introduce the card was taken in the context of the Skills and Mobility Action Plan, which is intended to remove the main obstacles to occupational and geographical mobility within the EU by 2005.

The Summit asked the European Commission to prepare proposals for a card which would replace the various paper forms currently needed for health treatment in another Member State when on a temporary stay: the E111 form for short stays such as holidays; E128 for employees posted to another country; E110 for international road transport; E128 for study; and E119 for job seekers.

The Commission proposes a three-phase strategy for introducing the card:

• phase one covers legal and technical preparation and consultations with Member States and other stakeholders.
• phase two will be the launch of the card on 1 June 2004. The card will initially replace form E111, then the other forms used for temporary stays. Member States such as Ireland, the UK and most of the Acceding Countries, which make little or no use of such cards at the moment, will have until 31 December 2005 to introduce the card.
• the third phase will be the introduction of electronic 'smart cards'.

According to the Commission, the card will offer a number of advantages, including enabling patients who have to pay for their health care abroad to be reimbursed more quickly by their own social security systems, and - in the future - to claim not just emergency care in another Member State, but also any other care which might be necessary (there is, says the Commission, already agreement on this between the Member States).

The Commission's Communication also includes background to the proposal and information about existing health insurance cards. Smart cards are already used in some countries (e.g. Belgium, France, Germany, Spain, Slovenia) and are planned in others (Greece, Czech Republic). A number of cross-border projects are highlighted, including:

• Meuse-Rhine Euregio, where reciprocal arrangements allow sickness insurance to be claimed by both Germans and Dutch in the border area;
• Baden-Württemberg - Vorarlberg, where the German sickness insurance card is recognised in Austria;
• French Thiérache and Belgian Hainaut, where 'Transcards' allow French and Belgian citizens in the border area can receive medical care near their home but on the other side of the border;
• the Netc@rds project, which aims to replace the paper forms E111 and E128 in Austria, France, Germany and Greece with an electronic data transfer system.

Links:

European Commission:
	21.02.03:	European health card for 1 June 2004 [IP/03/271]
	European Health Insurance Card
	Communication concerning the introduction of a European health insurance card COM (2003) 73
BBC News Online:
	21.02.03:	EU medical card 'by 2004'

Eric Davies
Researcher
Compiled: Tuesday, 25 February 2003

1 June 2004 will see the launch of a Europe-wide health insurance card, if proposals put forward by the European Commission on 17 February 2003 are adopted.