Report

Author(s): Commission services (Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs), Economic Policy Committee (Ageing Working Group).

The report on Health Care and Long-Term Care Systems & Fiscal Sustainability (October 2016), prepared by the staff of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs and the Economic Policy Committee (Ageing Working Group), presents policy challenges for health care and long term care and options on how to contain spending pressures through efficiency gains, in order to ensure fiscally sustainable access to good quality services for all.

• Inadequate or insufficient information on specific investment needs is perceived as a challenge in half of the EU Member States. Additionally, other causes are a concern to further investment and to the fiscal sustainability of the system, such as competing fiscal pressures stemming from various ministries, changing policy priorities and the reported existence of fraud or corruption.
• The existence of fraud or corruption in the health care sector seems to be a cause for worries particularly in EU13 countries.
• In particular, tendering has a high potential to generate savings in European health systems, while sustaining a high level of quality of care. It is estimated that up to 25% of public procurement spending (including on pharmaceuticals) is lost to corrupt practices and fraud (Sorenson and Kanavos, 2011).

To download the 2 reports and find more information, click on the image below or: http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/publications/eeip/ip037_en.htm