Healthcare part of the service sector?

It was quite liberating to listen to former health minister Thomas Julineks intervention in Prague this week. Julinek pointed out some problems with how healthcare today is viewed and organized and some steps forward to be taken. He stated with a not too controversial claim that the Ministry of Health should not organize healthcare - instead the role for the ministry should be to establish a framework and system.

But he then quickly became more controversial when he explained that he also saw a problem in healthcare being regarded as a special sector instead of a normal service and that he would like to see that healthcare was included in the general service directive. His explanation was that he would like to see that the free movement of services also included healthcare since this would give so much benefits even if the countries should still be able to direct their own systems. Since it is clear from other areas that it is possible to develop a regulated market he think this will be possible for healthcare as well.

He also wanted an open admission from everyone that the best is if we can combine private and public healthcare. Given the some of the other interventions on that panel from Hungary and Portugal I don’t think he will get it.