Health discrimination in Member States?

The EU has nonplused the UK with its announcement that they are planning to sue the British government for its system of testing nationals from other Member States before deciding whether to grant them social benefits; these may include child benefits and jobseekers allowance, among others.

The EU decision comes after several friendly attempts, seeking to soothe the situation, failed and a spate of claims from people living in the UK had crammed the Ombudsman desk.

It resembles the issue in Spain regarding the EHI Cards (European Health Insurance Card), which some public hospitals seem to have been rejecting when the patients toting them are nationals from other Member States, as happened in at least one case.

While Spain has rushed to declare that they will look into the matter and even mulct the hospitals involved if any illegal activity is discovered (something that a few have regarded as a fulsome apology), the UK remains staunch in its view.

That the British Government has a penchant for keeping an independent fiscal and health system, is something that has traditionally been bandied about; but this time, their current standpoint is seen by a few as a sullen act of discrimination. Some real EU lovers have gone as far as to label their vision as an act of crude jingoism.

To some extent, the UK position could be seen as understandable. They argue that they are curtailing the likelihood of a splurge from Health Tourism: the fact that people suffering an unbearable paucity may feel allured by a relatively wealthy country where they could receive a sundry of health treatments that otherwise would be out of their reach.

The UK government thinks that the EU position is oblivious of the risk of generating a calling effect, and accused the Commission of nonchalantly giving recommendations that pursue unity, but without pondering the other side of the coin.

While a quest to provide primary services for European citizens-no matter the country they may be living in- could be seen as a cloying and futile dream, hampering the system without giving the chance of finding common ground may require too much sangfroid.