Dietrich V; Academy for Health Services Research and Health Policy. Meeting.
Abstr Acad Health Serv Res Health Policy Meet. 2000; 17: UNKNOWN.
Presented by: Vera Dietrich, Dipl.-Vw., Research Fellow, Institute for Economic Research, Kleine Markerstrasse 8, 06108 Halle/Saale, Germany, Tel.: ++ 49/345/7753864, Fax: ++49/345/7753820, e-mail: die@iwh.uni-halle.de
Research Objectives: Traditionally, the health services sector in the European Union had been completely excluded from intra-European competition and patients were restricted to domestic providers of health services by national law. This was changed by a recent verdict of the European Court of Justice which now forces national health insurance systems to cover the costs of medical care even if it is obtained in other EU-memberstates. Therefore, patients will be able to choose among providers of health services in Europe. The judgement has lead to controversies among European governments who fear to loose control on the field of health policy. This paper examines the economic effects of deregulation, in particular the financial impact on national health insurance systems. Study Design: The study conducts price comparisons for various health services (hospital care, specialist care, general practitioners, dentists) in the EU. Additionally, health care expenditure the EU-memberstates is analyzed. Based on previous studies on patient migration in Europe the financial impact on national health insurance systems after deregulation is assessed.Population Studied: EU-memberstatesPrincipal Findings: Due to significant differences in the quality of medical care (i.e. waiting lists, endowment with medical technology) in the European Union deregulation is likely to induce asymmetric patient migration from low-quality to high-quality states. This can be expected especially in the segments of specialist and hospital care. At the same time fees for these medical services as well as health care expenditure vary considerably among European memberstates. As a result of cross-border care memberstates which provide a comparable low quality and can be characterized by a rather small health care budget will have to face a substantial increase in health care expenditure which might endanger the financial stability of their social security systems.Conclusions: Introducing freedom of choice under the current regulatory framework will put health insurance systems of low-quality states under heavy pressure. This turns out to be a major problem with respect to the accession of Eastern-European countries to the EU.Implications for Policy: In contradiction to current regulation patients going abroad should only be reimbursed by the national insurer according to the costs of medical treatment in the domestic state. Differences in the fees of domestic and foreign care should be borne by the patients as a co-payment.Primary Funding Source: German Government
Publication Types:
Keywords:
- Delivery of Health Care
- Ethnic Groups
- Europe
- European Union
- Health Expenditures
- Health Policy
- Health Services
- Health Services Research
- Humans
- Internationality
- National Health Programs
- Public Policy
- Social Security
- economics
- hsrmtgs
Other ID:
UI: 102272230
From Meeting Abstracts