Patient’s Cross-border Mobility Directive: Application, Performance and Perceptions Two Years after Transposition

Abstract

Abstract This paper seeks to analyse the directive on the application of patients’ rights in cross-border healthcare. Two years after the transposition, it is time for first evaluations of its application, performance and perception. The analysis consists of three major elements: reconstruction of the legal scope and subject matter of the new legislation, conclusions of the evaluative reports monitoring its implementation and performance as well as the public opinion polls revealing the EU citizens’ perception of its details. These three components combined together deliver a picture of the state of play about the pan-European cross-border patients’ mobility. The bottomline conclusions negatively verify the supposition present in some earlier literature on patients’ cross-border mobility that the directive has a transformative potential leading towards the creation of truly competitive pan-European medical market. After two years of its operation, there is still no increased patients’ mobility across EU internal borders observed. As regards the speculations for the future, there are only some weak symptoms identified and they may result in intensified cross-border mobility for healthcare.