EU-border Healthcare directive delayed

According to EurActiv, an independent media portal dedicated to EU Affairs, the EU health Directive across borders that you want to lift the restrictions on patients traveling to treatment in other EU countries could be redrafted, withdrawn or downgraded.

Directive EU cross-border health took a couple of years to develop and was scheduled to go public on 17 December 2007. Became the main UK news of the day (the EU had leaked early copies of the directive for the media). But at noon, the EU had decided not to publish the directive and announced a delay of 4 weeks or so in publication due to "schedule issues".

Methinks ... that some Governments, including the United Kingdom were not too happy about the implications of the directive and how it can put your own healthcare system in a bad light as they became "exporters" of patients.

EurActiv believes that the Commission was requested to recast the directive.

A representative of the Organization of stakeholders a doctor told EurActiv:

"This is a problem between the EU Member State rich and poor. Health care costs vary widely across the EU, therefore, would be easier for Rich Nations to reimburse cheaper care abroad than for poor countries to repay their nationals seeking care dear in the richest countries ".

According to a spokesman for the Commission, the proposal is still scheduled for publication in "early 2008".

EU-border Healthcare directive increases the health tourism

The new directive EU health across borders which should be announced today plans to lift the restrictions on patients traveling to treatment in other EU countries. Patients who wish to travel to other EU countries for medical treatment will be able to recover the cost of NHS treatments and will only have to pay their travel and accommodation costs, as well as any top-up fees if foreign hospitals charges are higher than the NHS cost.

The directive can revolutionize the way we experience healthcare in the United Kingdom and the rest of Europe. The directive takes the concept of choice of patients to a new level. Competition European hospitals could request changes very necessary within the NHS. Successive Governments of the United Kingdom made token gestures for introducing market forces within the NHS. the NHS ranked 17 of 29 European countries recent euro index of consumer health, now faces effective competition on the European market.

The directive will provide a framework for crossing the border healthcare and will deal with issues such as quality of care, patient safety, method of financing and transfer of patient information. There are also plans to introduce "European reference networks" that would gather medical expertise across Europe and encourage greater collaboaration between centres of excellence.