The path to a European Health Union
Summary: The European Union has historically left health policy decisions to individual member states, cooperating only on issues like cross-border healthcare and medicine safety. However, the COVID-19 pandemic underscored the need for collective action across borders. In response, in October 2020,...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Elsevier
2024-01-01
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| Series: | The Lancet Regional Health. Europe |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666776223002132 |
| _version_ | 1797449407679954944 |
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| author | Martin McKee Anniek de Ruijter |
| author_facet | Martin McKee Anniek de Ruijter |
| author_sort | Martin McKee |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Summary: The European Union has historically left health policy decisions to individual member states, cooperating only on issues like cross-border healthcare and medicine safety. However, the COVID-19 pandemic underscored the need for collective action across borders. In response, in October 2020, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called for the creation of a “European Health Union”. This initiative aims to enhance the protection of European citizens' health, bolster pandemic preparedness, and strengthen healthcare systems. So far, the initiative has not led to major contestation. This might be because the proposals under this heading have been rather piecemeal and are not generally seen as being part of a comprehensive vision for identifying areas where EU intervention benefit national health policy. In this contribution we propose a path forward in terms of content and process for developing a more comprehensive vision on the policy content and the process. In so doing, we are not debating the need for a European Health Union. We take for granted that the existing European Health Union presents an opportunity to deliver, now and in the future, the added benefit of harmonizing, centralizing, or coordinating health-related laws, institutions, policies and actions at EU level. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T14:24:38Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-3eb1feef3d1b4beeb434b1b9d741ba59 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2666-7762 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T14:24:38Z |
| publishDate | 2024-01-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | The Lancet Regional Health. Europe |
| spelling | doaj.art-3eb1feef3d1b4beeb434b1b9d741ba592023-11-28T07:27:13ZengElsevierThe Lancet Regional Health. Europe2666-77622024-01-0136100794The path to a European Health UnionMartin McKee0Anniek de Ruijter1London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, United Kingdom; Corresponding author.University of Amsterdam, the NetherlandsSummary: The European Union has historically left health policy decisions to individual member states, cooperating only on issues like cross-border healthcare and medicine safety. However, the COVID-19 pandemic underscored the need for collective action across borders. In response, in October 2020, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called for the creation of a “European Health Union”. This initiative aims to enhance the protection of European citizens' health, bolster pandemic preparedness, and strengthen healthcare systems. So far, the initiative has not led to major contestation. This might be because the proposals under this heading have been rather piecemeal and are not generally seen as being part of a comprehensive vision for identifying areas where EU intervention benefit national health policy. In this contribution we propose a path forward in terms of content and process for developing a more comprehensive vision on the policy content and the process. In so doing, we are not debating the need for a European Health Union. We take for granted that the existing European Health Union presents an opportunity to deliver, now and in the future, the added benefit of harmonizing, centralizing, or coordinating health-related laws, institutions, policies and actions at EU level.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666776223002132European UnionHealthPolicy |
| spellingShingle | Martin McKee Anniek de Ruijter The path to a European Health Union The Lancet Regional Health. Europe European Union Health Policy |
| title | The path to a European Health Union |
| title_full | The path to a European Health Union |
| title_fullStr | The path to a European Health Union |
| title_full_unstemmed | The path to a European Health Union |
| title_short | The path to a European Health Union |
| title_sort | path to a european health union |
| topic | European Union Health Policy |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666776223002132 |
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