Congress report - European Health Forum Gastein

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European Health Forum Gastein 2001
2. Patient mobility and mutual influences on each other's systems
According to the established policies of the European Union with respect to the area of
health care, there is no direct interference of the Union in the definition of a national health
care system. However, since there are differences both in financing and delivery of health
care in different existing member states, there is a question whether such an approach is
viable in the future. The famous Kohl and Dekker cases have triggered many questions that
arise from the conflict between an open and free market approach pursued by some and the
integrity of own national health care systems with their specifics. There is a danger that there
might be too much 'outflow' of patients to more developed member countries and a net
'deficit' of patients in the domestic health care.
3. Internal health care markets
Markets have become a much more important issue and a revival of the old business
principles for all the accession countries following the political and social processes leading
to transition. In health care that line of thinking has led to a shift from a more public health
oriented system (even if often poor on resources) to a more service and production oriented
one. That in itself should not be that bad if it were not followed by a shift towards more
purely curative services.
4. Opening of health care markets and international competition
That dilemma leads to another important and closely related issue and that is the health
markets. The accession countries might find themselves at the challenge of not being able to
compete with the health care facilities of the neighbouring member states. Assistance in
accreditation procedures and their standardisation seem to be rather important in that sense,
otherwise, the accession countries might find another obstacle to their more active presence
on the European health care market.
5. Defining the common minimum package
It is becoming increasingly difficult to define a common minimum package.
Comprehensiveness of health care needs to be preserved in spite of the efforts to make it
competitive and more market oriented. A regulation that would somehow standardise the
minimum of care provided by a certain country therefore, seems warranted. If such a
provision is not made, there might be gradually a wider variation in the type, extent and
quality of services provided across different countries. That would effectively potentially
worsen the existing inequities and inequalities within Europe. Both quantity and quality of
publicly financed services would be at stake then.
Slovenia's own views
Slovenia sees both challenges and opportunities in view of the accession to the European
Union.
Challenges are related to:
- opening of borders and free movement of workforce and patients
- broader and more demanding health care market
Opportunities are in:
- more professional development and research
- offering own facilities on the health care market (especially certain medical
specialities)
Slovenia has a quickly ageing population (both bottom-up as well as top-down). That will
certainly increase the demand for certain types of health care (e.g. long-term care, increases
in chronic diseases prevalence and incidence rates). Communicable diseases are well
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