Book Review: Health Systems Governance in Europe. The Role of European Union Law and Policy
| Author | Ulla Neergaard |
| DOI | 10.1177/138826271301500108 |
| Date | 01 March 2013 |
| Published date | 01 March 2013 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
Elias Mossialos, Govin Permanand, Rita Baeten and Tamara K. Hervey (eds.), Health
Systems Governance in Europe. Th
e Role of European Union Law and Policy, Health
Economics, Policy and Management Series, Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 2010, xxi + 762 pp., ISBN 978–0–521–74756–1 (paperback).
Quite to the point, in a recent Opinion, Advocate General Trstenjak explains: ‘[T]
he Court is well aware of the fragmented competences in the area of health services
… and of the resulting confl ict between Member States’ sovereign powers in respect
of organising health services on the one hand and the fundamental freedoms on the
other hand … and in its settled case-law it emphasises that European Union law does
not detract from the power of the Member States to organise their social security
systems. In the absence of harmonisation at European Union level, it is thus for the
legislation of each Member State to continue to determine the conditions for granting
social security benefi ts. When exercising that power and generally for the purposes
of organising health services, Member States must comply with European Union
law…’1 Th
e present book may be said to take its point of departure in this rather
complicated, challenging, and at times, even self-contradictory, situation, where
Europe is characterised by many as having entered national health care systems
by the back door of the internal market. Th
is research objective is more expressly
formulated by the editors in the following words stated at the very beginning of
the introductory chapter as the two underlying questions with which the book is
concerned: ‘… how has the EU health care landscape changed, and what now are the
pressing issues?’2
Th
e book consists of an edited collection of essays written by, in addition
to the editors themselves, several other leading experts in the area, from many
diff erent academic disciplines and countries, under the common theme of ‘Health
Systems Governance in Europe’. It is published in the ‘Health Economics, Policy
and Management’ series, edited by Elias Mossialos. Altogether, 22 authors have
contributed. With 15 chapters in total, the majority have been co-authored and
several of the authors have contributed to more than one chapter. In addition, the
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