Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-06-07-Speech-2-363"
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"en.20050607.31.2-363"2
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"Mr President, firstly, I wish to thank Mr Bowis for this excellent report. Around Europe, there are many patients and people who are in need of care who have a lot to gain from the vision we are presenting in this House of increased opportunities to move across borders.
There are, unfortunately, politicians and bureaucrats in Europe who frown upon increased mobility and freedom of choice. They regard freedom of choice as a threat to their own ability to plan and regulate, in other words as a threat to their own power. That is why, in so many Member States including Sweden, it may be impossible for patients even to seek care in another part of the country. With this report, we clearly show that we are not on the side of the bureaucrats in this conflict, but on that of the patients.
I wish, however, to emphasise that I too think that health care is a national matter. Our task is to tear down borders and ensure that patients can seek care wherever they need to. Freedom of movement provides, firstly, competition between health care systems that drives development forward and, secondly, a more efficient use of health services’ scarce resources. In Sweden, patients may need to queue up for years, waiting for treatment for which there is overcapacity in other countries. By tearing down the borders, we create the preconditions for both development and efficiency. This means an improvement in healthcare in our Member States, with more people’s needs being met.
I would call upon my fellow MEPs to vote in favour of Amendment 5, tabled by Mr Bowis, Mrs Oomen-Ruijten and myself on behalf of the Group of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats. The amendment entails adding a new paragraph, 4a, about not stating in the resolution that we are to remove health services and medical care from the Services Directive. If there are any service companies operating in an environment characterised by regulations and monopolies that prevent mobility and competition, it is specifically companies providing medical treatment and healthcare. To crown it all, the removal of healthcare services from the directive is not a subject that even belongs within this debate, in which we are discussing the mobility of patients, not that of healthcare providers.
It is important to emphasise people’s knowledge of healthcare in different countries. We need informed patients who are able to benefit from the opportunities we are opening up to them. I therefore want to conclude by inviting you all to a seminar on 15 June in Brussels where we shall, for the first time, present a proper factual comparison from the patient’s perspective of Europe’s healthcare systems. You are all sincerely welcome to attend."@en1
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