PATIENT MOBILITY WITHIN THE EUROPEAN-UNION

The European integration process and the application of the principle of free movement to new areas of social economic life are raising new questions. One of these questions is the potential mobility of patient s within the European Union (EU). Under a commission from the Director ate General V of the European Commission, the authors conducted a stud y of this topic in 1991. The normative framework used in this study is again used here to analyse in depth the types of cross-border care av ailable under social protection. In this paper the main results of thi s study are summarized and, where possible, updated. In the first part of the paper the historical development of the European cross-border care regulatory system is charted. A second part deals with the macro- analysis of patient flows. In the final part of the paper, some conclu sions are drawn as to the desirable development of the EU policy with respect to cross-border care (de)regulation.