The Europeanization of Health Care: Processes and Factors

Abstract

In various aspects health care constitutes a less likely or critical case of both European integration and Europeanization (Eckstein, 1975).¹ As set out explicitly in the Treaty, the organization of health care is the responsibility of the member states (Art. 168(7) of the Lisbon Treaty, previously Art. 152(5)). As in other social policy areas, national governments have indeed been opposed to delegating too much competence to the European Community (EC) when it comes to the core of the welfare state. Health care continues to be a policy area of high political salience and legacy, and with a large set of national veto points opposing supranational intervention. Furthermore, it is a policy area of considerable economic attention and fragility, where the need for cost control hampers the introduction of new cross-border supplies. Nevertheless, both integration and Europeanization have taken place with considerable speed and substance. When a policy area may be classified as a less likely or critical case of Europeanization, this brings specific challenges to the research design, but may also bring out crucial theoretical and empirical insights regarding which causal factors mediate or limit the processes of Europeanization and its outcome. The second section will look further into case selection and how the classification of a case is an important first step, when planning one’s research design for the study of Europeanization.