Cross-border healthcare could leave insurers with a bill payable to European providers.

Neil Thompson, product manager at private medical insurance (PMI) provider National Friendly, recently returned from a trip to Europe to explore the impact of EU legislation on healthcare, said the implications of the directive on cross-border healthcare had yet to be fully explained.

“Nobody quite knows what will happen if somebody does elect to go overseas for treatment and the bill is higher than it would be in the UK,” he said. “If a knee operation was £4,000 in France and £3,000 in UK, who would pick up the extra £1,000? Arguably anybody who had an insurance policy might expect that their insurance provider to meet the excess. This is one of many questions as yet unanswered in the Europe Parliament.”

Thompson said there remained a possibility that insurers would no longer be able to stipulate that only UK treatment would be funded. At the Association of British Insurer’s biannual conference Bupa’s group director of public policy Mark Bassett predicted that the directive could speed moves towards non-NHS financing of healthcare, by enabling patients to supplement their NHS entitlement abroad.

WORKING TIME DIRECTIVE

Another European directive is currently being fiercely contested by doctors unions. The European Working Time Directive (EWTD) would introduce a 48-hour week for junior doctors which the British Medical Association (BMA) claims will render a third of junior doctors’ current hours illegal.

Dr Andy Thornley, chairman of the BMA’s junior doctors committee, said: “Unless the challenges of the EWTD are taken more seriously there will undoubtedly be disruption to patient services in August. We are also deeply concerned that the quality of training for junior doctors will be threatened.”

Thompson speculated that the implementation of the directive could lead to longer waiting times, suggesting that the reductions achieved since 1997 may have been built on junior doctors’ lengthy working hours.

ATTITUDES TO CROSS-BORDER HEALTHCARE

54% of UK citizens are open to travel to another EU country to seek medical treatment

95% of this number would do so if necessary treatment was unavailable at home

81% of this number would go to seek better quality treatment

86% of this number would go to seek quicker access

66% of this number are interested in cheaper treatment

Source: Eurobarometer survey, 2007