The international health service: plan to give British patients the right

[rodeodance]

Geesh, and we do not even have the right to 'national' health treatments.
I am jealous.



http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article1367194.ece

The international health service: plan to give British patients the right to treatment abroad

By Stephen Castle in Brussels
Published: 06 September 2006

Britons stand to gain new rights to seek health treatment abroad and then bill the National Health Service, under "health tourism" plans unveiled by the European Commission.

The moves could lead to a big expansion of cross-border choice for patients but could also increase the bill for the NHS if it is forced to reimburse more treatment administered abroad.

The European commissioner for health, Markos Kyprianou, said he also plans to consult on the possibility of allowing surgeons to perform operations abroad and permitting doctors to offer advice and treatment via the internet.

The initiative follows a series of judgements in the European Court of Justice which established the right of European citizens to seek treatment abroad if they are entitled to it in their own country but have suffered an unreasonable delay.

[Benhurst]

1. Sigh. And we don't even have it at home. But then that's the price

you pay to be The World's Only Superpower.

What a dump!

[w4rma]

2. They should be careful about this. This can go bad or good. (nt)

[larrysh]

3. Could get awfully expensive!

[Erika]

4. We've underwritten Iraqis to receive free medical care

which our own needy cannot get here much less abroad.

[crikkett]

5. Feh. Seems like the medical care they get is from the morgue.

From what I read in the papers.

[intaglio]

6. The "additional" costs are largely illusory

as the NHS would otherwise have to fund the treatment "in house". The whole thing is about setting up a market to drive down total medical costs without effecting quality of treatment. Expect right wing UK newspapers to start bleating (again) about Europeans coming to the UK to get their treatments.

Remember the medical industries loathe European socialised medicine as it forces them to ~ gulp ~ compete and then they don't make so much profit. Oh and Big Pharma hates us for the same reason :+

[Turley]

7. Europeans comin TO the UK???????

Nobody is that stupid. The UK has the worst healthcare in Europe.

[intaglio]

8. On the contrary

The French is probably the best generally, the German very fragmented, Italian the less said the better, Benelux & others I don't know, Spanish - see Italy.

UK Service is probably most valued for it's diagnostic capabilities, the very high proportion of High Dependency units and pain control.