Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-05-21-Speech-1-076"
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"en.20070521.15.1-076"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, the initial report by my esteemed colleague, Mrs Vergnaud, should, in theory, gain the support of all the Members.
The objective of enabling everyone – everyone in Europe – to receive adequate health care when they move around Europe, for professional and private reasons, simply falls within the realm of freedom of movement.
However, patients’ right to mobility can be guaranteed only if the EU Member States retain the power to regulate these health services, so that they can control the funding of them, because, while health has no price, it has a cost, and a growing cost at that. This cost is becoming more and more substantial, and there is the risk that it will become impossible to manage the funding of social protection and health services for all in all of our Member States.
Certain political forces within this Parliament have a simplistic response to this concern, which is shared by virtually all of the ministers for health: leave the market alone and entrust the funding of social security to private insurance companies.
I suspect also that Commissioner Kyprianou shares these somewhat ultraliberal views. He said to the
that competition between European health services is inevitable and, to the
that people can shop around.
The Socialist Group in the European Parliament does not share that view. It is in favour of the right to health care for all throughout Europe, but is against a market that will enable the wealthiest people to have the best possible treatment, while the poorest and least mobile people will have the right only to a minimum level of treatment.
Those who believe that the market, and the market alone, could guarantee high-quality health care for all should reflect on the situation in the United States. In that great country, the cost of health care is the highest in the world, that is, some 15% of GDP, or practically double the European average. However, that very expensive system is excluding a growing number of US citizens: in 2006, 46.6 million Americans had no medical insurance. That is certainly not an example that Europe should follow."@en1
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