Disparities regarding access to health and healthcare services

Subject: Disparities regarding access to health and healthcare services

According to the Commission’s Horizon 2020 work programme, inequalities regarding access to health and healthcare are among the four major challenges facing Europe. Indeed, the disparities are substantial, as illustrated by the statistics, with

life expectancy at birth varying widely across the Member States. In 2020, Bulgaria and Romania recorded the lowest life expectancies - 73.6 years and 74.2 years respectively - far below Switzerland and Norway, with life expectancies of 83.2 and 83.3 years respectively, a difference of 9.6 years.

Infant mortality rates also vary from 1.6 in Estonia and 2.1 in Sweden to 6.7 in Malta and 5.8 in Romania.

The latest available Eurostat data indicate that, since 2014, over 21% of the EU population has reported unmet healthcare requirements, citing financial reasons. Here again, there are major disparities, ranging from 9.3% in Cyprus to 50% in Ireland.

While responsibility for health care rests primarily with the Member State governments, the European Union has an ancillary role to play. In view of this, what measures have been taken or are being considered by the Commission to reduce disparities between the Member States regarding healthcare?

Answer given by Ms Kyriakides on behalf of the European Commission

(17 December 2021)

Principle 16 in the European Pillar of Social Rights (1) commits to improve access to healthcare. The European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan stresses the importance of the European Health Union in building more accessible health systems and commits to improve accessibility metrics.

In relation to this specific commitment, the Commission’s Expert group on Health Systems Performance Assessment published a report on improving access to healthcare through more powerful measurement tools (2). The Commission will provide further financial support via the EU4Health work programme (3) with a focus on affordability of healthcare.

Furthermore, the Joint Action on Health Equity Europe 2018-2021 (4) financed under the 3rd Health Programme will soon provide results and recommendations together with a set of best practices for tackling health inequalities, including access to health for those left behind.

The European Pillar of Social Rights is a joint commitment. The Commission works with the Member States in the framework of the European Semester and the social Open Method of Coordination.

In 2020, all the Member States received Country Specific Recommendations (5) in the health area and many of them called for improvements in accessibility of healthcare. EU funding is available to support Member States to improve access to healthcare.

The Recovery and Resilience Facility (6) provides support to improve access to healthcare as part of resilient health systems. Member States have included a wide array of health investments and reforms in their national Recovery and Resilience Plans, which aim to improve accessibility of health services, increase their efficiency and the overall resilience of the healthcare sector.

⋅1∙ Principle 16: Everyone has the right to timely access to affordable, preventive and curative healthcare of good quality.

⋅2∙ https://ec.europa.eu/health/sites/default/files/systems_performance_assessment/docs/measuring_access-to-healthcare_en.pdf

⋅3∙ https://ec.europa.eu/health/sites/default/files/funding/docs/wp2021_annex_en.pdf

⋅4∙ https://jahee.iss.it/

⋅5∙ https://ec.europa.eu/info/publications/2020-european-semester-country-specific-recommendations-commission-recommendations_en

⋅6∙ https://ec.europa.eu/info/business-economy-euro/recovery-coronavirus/recovery-and-resilience-facility_en