Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-04-23-Speech-4-025"
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"en.20090423.3.4-025"2
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"Mr President, I wish to warmly welcome the report by my esteemed colleague, Mr Bowis, on patients’ rights to cross-border health care. I regret that Mr Bowis is not present with us in the House this morning, and I wish him a speedy recovery from his illness.
It has been an honour for me to play my part in working to improve patients’ rights to cross-border health care. I myself am a beneficiary of cross-border health care. I was lucky enough to be able to afford to pay. Now I want those who are not as lucky as I was to be able to benefit from the right to travel to receive health care without having to worry about costs, fully informed as to their rights and as to the quality of care they can expect to receive.
The issue of patients’ rights to cross-border health care has been debated and promulgated through the European Court of Justice in the past number of years. It is thus timely and appropriate that we, the representatives of the people, define clearly and unequivocally for the people patients’ undeniable right to access high-quality health care, regardless of their means or their geographical location.
We should also have the right to access high-quality health care close to home. However, we also need to recognise that this is not always possible, especially in the case of rare diseases, where treatment may not be available in the patient’s Member State of affiliation.
If we need to travel abroad for health care, we should not have to go through any uncertainty as to our ability to foot the bill for what is often expensive treatment. Therefore, I am delighted that this uncertainty and confusion has been cleared up once and for all. Once prior authorisation is given in normal circumstances, patients will be liable only for the cost of treatment above and beyond what it would have cost them should they have received the same or similar treatment at home.
Information about quality and standards of care in other Member States is another important factor for those of us who may need to travel abroad for treatment. We have worked hard to ensure that this information will be available to patients should we have to or wish to travel for treatment. The national contact points proposed in this document are thus one of the key innovations and will play a huge role in helping and facilitating patient mobility. I welcome this report and I hope it will get through today."@en1
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