Private Health Insurance and the European Union
Treaties are categorical as to the limited competencies of the European Union when it comes to health policy. However, this statement is not true for complementary and supplementary health insurance, which accounts in several European countries for a significant share of health expenditures – and when it is even the main provider of care for some benefits. In this respect, private (usually voluntary) health insurance has been fundamentally transformed by a series of European directives and regulations over the last thirty years.