Green light for healthcare without borders

“After Schengen, this is the second opening of the EU borders”, enthuses Dziennik Gazeta Prawna’s leader on the draft directive adopted on 8 June by EU health ministers. As of 2012, EU citizens will be able to receive treatment in a hospital of their choice – public or private – in any member state and “be reimbursed the same amount they would have received at home”. The Warsaw daily notes that only “the most affluent will seek medical care abroad – those who can afford travel, accommodation, and food costs during treatment. Also those who are most desperate, like tumour patients, who right now have to wait months for an operation”. DGP fears that reimbursement of costly healthcare treatment abroad could pump up Poland’s health expenditure, resulting in higher contributions. Spain, on the other hand, is now satisfied with the new elements in the proposed directive that oblige the states of expatriate nationals to contribute a monthly 300 euros towards their health costs, reports La Vanguardia. As host to 2.5 million non national EU residents, 400,000 of which are over 55 years old, its health ministry feared the directive could have seen expenditure rocket another €2 billion.