EU conference on access to health care in Europe

The conference 'Health in Europe, making it fairer', organised by the European Commission on 18th of March 2014 in Brussels, aimed to exchange information on the issues of fairness, access to and discrimination in health in Europe.

The conference was opened by Tonio Borg, European Commissioner for Health, who referred to a recent EU report on health inequalities which showed that while the gap in life expectancy and infant mortality between Member States has decreased over the last 10 years, the health gap – for example between rich and poor and between certain social groups – has remained the same. He underlined actions undertaken by the EU to tackle these health inequalities:

1. A Joint Action on Health Inequalities through the EU Health Programme


2. Reducing health inequalities as a key objective of the European Regional Development and Investment Fund for 2014-2020


3. Access to healthcare as one of the four key objectives of the EU Framework for national Roma integration strategies


4. The Joint Action on Mental Health and Well-Being to combat discrimination and stigma in mental health


5. The European Commission’s commitment to strengthen their approach on human rights in the treatment and prevention of HIV/AIDS and co-infections


6. A dialogue with the World Health Organization regarding Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex group’s concerns on discrimination in access to healthcare


7. A Joint Action on Cancer Control to be launched in March 2014


8. The Innovation Partnership on Healthy and Active Ageing

 

Commissioner Borg and other speakers including Adonis Georgiadis, Minister of Health in Greece, and Ingrīda Circene, Minister of Health in Latvia, stressed that all forms of discrimination in access to health care should be tackled. Ingrīda Circene added that regional authorities and municipalities play a crucial role in health promotion, prevention and health and social care provision at community level: “It should be addressed that the local level has a leading role in reaching out to vulnerable groups.”

The access of vulnerable groups to health care was also addressed during the afternoon workshop ‘Health of people in vulnerable situations; which focused on certain groups such as older people, ethnic minorities and migrants. Participants presented successful strategies in partnership with local authorities, NGOs and local service providers or public health mediators to address specific targeted needs (e.g. language barriers with migrants).

Public social services that provide long-term care for older people, services for people with disabilities or child care, which are organised by members of the European Social Network (ESN), take the social determinants of health into account and promote access to health care for certain vulnerable groups. ESN is also promoting the social dimension of health in key initiatives mentioned by Commissioner Borg, such as the Joint Action Mental Health and Well-Being and the European Innovation Partnership on Healthy and Active Ageing.

You can read more about the background and outcomes of the conference here.