A new law on crossborder healthcare outlines who can seek treatment and who foots the bill.

Flashback: Opening up healthcare

Almost 1 in 100 Europeans travels to  another EU country for healthcare.

From 2013 a new directive  will open the healthcare frontiers.

It should facilitate consultations  and operations beyond national borders.

Tired of the suffering  and the waiting,

Yvonne Watts decided to travel from  the UK to France for treatment.

An operation that cost  5800 euros for a hip replacement,

a bill that the NHS  refused to reimburse to this patient.

In 2006 the European Court of Justice  ruled against the UK authorities.

A decision that has opened the way to  crossborder healthcare reform.

Currently only emergency situations  are routinely covered by the home state,

as in the case of  a holiday to another EU state.

It makes you wonder  what Europe is doing on healthcare.

The French social security  doesn't meet the cost

for a non-urgent consultation  or hospital stay.

The new law will apply to people who  choose treatment in another EU country.

Reimbursement is possible,  but two criteria must be met:

repayments cannot exceed  the tariffs in the home country

or exceed the sums  actually paid for the treatment.

Each European Union country  will have to set up a contact point

to give citizens all the necessary help.

The patient can obtain  all the necessary information

about the type of treatment available  in other Member States.

This will only be top-quality  and safe treatment, of course.

And find out under which conditions  they will be reimbursed

and if prior authorisation is needed -  the kinds of questions patients ask.

For certain costly treatments  that relate to overnight hospital stays,

patients will have to obtain prior  authorisation from their countries,

a measure intended  to limit medical tourism.

The Commission will monitor  all the prior authorisations and refusals

and will look at all the refusals  one by one,

so that the Member States  will not abuse this opportunity.

MEPs wanted to strictly limit  the admission criteria.

Health systems in the home country  can refuse authorisation for care.

For example, you are  a very weak heart patient.

You would like to be treated abroad  and need to fly there.

We won't allow you to, because  flying won't be good for you.

When the medical team or the doctors is  not licensed for this particular treatment.

where an epidemic is taking hold,  we would refuse because of the timing.

When there is the same treatment  at national level

which could be provided within  a medically justifiable timeframe.

Care abroad could particularly help  patients who are on long waiting lists

or who need specialised care,  like those suffering from rare illnesses.

We’re talking about illnesses  for which there are few specialists.

This is the first problem, namely the lack  of specialists in many hospitals

who can access information  and who know about

the cutting-edge treatments  for these diseases.

Positive for some, negative for others,  the directive could increase competition.

The new law could force  health services to improve,

in order to keep their patients at home  and avoid paying bills abroad.