Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-04-23-Speech-4-017"
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"en.20090423.3.4-017"2
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"Mr President, since 1998 the European Court of Justice has determined that patients have the right to be reimbursed for health care received in another Member State. This report, on the back of the draft proposal from the Commissioner, clarifies how to apply the principles set out in those ECJ cases.
I welcome John Bowis’s excellent report and his skilful resolution of the many legitimate concerns that were with the original draft proposal. The report is based on patients’ needs and not patients’ means. The definitions of hospital care and prior authorisation have been discussed and, I understand, agreed with Council and Commission. Quality standards will remain a Member State competence, while safety standards a European-wide one. One-stop-shop equivalent sources of patient information will be essential in every Member State to allow informed choices by patients, and the provision of mutual recognition of prescriptions, I think, will be a very important add-on to this piece of legislation and must follow on quickly.
While health services were initially included in the draft proposal of the Bolkestein cross-border services proposal, it quickly became apparent that a stand-alone directive on this most important issue of health – which has ramifications for all aspects of health care in our 27 Member States – was needed. Patients will always prefer to receive health care close to where they live. Currently, only one percent of our budgets are spent on cross-border health care. Let us keep this in perspective.
However, when circumstances dictate, it can be beneficial to receive health care in another EU country – notably in border regions, whereby the nearest health facility, for example, may be in another country, or where there is more expertise available, for example in the case of rare diseases, or a particular care or treatment could possibly be provided faster in another country. I must fully acknowledge that the general competence in health policy and financing of health policy remains, and will continue to remain, at Member State level.
I have one single point to make on the Trakatellis report. There is a lot of concern and misinterpretation on Amendment 15, and I welcome the opportunity that the split vote will allow to vote against the concept of ‘eradication’ of rare diseases, which has caused a lot of concern. I will, however, be supporting the rest of the amendment and the excellent work done by my colleague Professor Antonios Trakatellis on rare diseases."@en1
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