Brussels, 27/10/2011 (Agence Europe) - Portuguese legislation on reimbursement for non-hospital medical care provided in another member state is contrary to the free movement of services, the Court of Justice of the EU ruled in the judgement handed down on Thursday 27 October in case C-255/09. With the exception of care that requires the use of major and costly equipment, for which, under the terms of a 2010 judgment, reimbursement may be made conditional on prior authorisation, the Court considers that member states must make it possible to obtain reimbursement, in accordance with their own scales, for non-hospital medical care provided in another member state without prior authorisation.
The case in point related to a Portuguese decree-law under which the reimbursement of non-hospital medical care that it considers to be “highly specialised”, provided in another member state, is subject to a threefold prior authorisation. For other non-hospital medical care, Portuguese law provides no possibility of reimbursement. Forming the view that this system infringes freedom of provision of services, the Commission brought an action before the Court.
The Court found for the Commission: medical services supplied for consideration fall within the scope of the provisions on the freedom to provide services and these preclude the application of any national rules which have the effect of making the provision of services between member states more difficult than the provision of services in a purely national situation. Thus, the Court found that the prior authorisation system imposed by the Portuguese decree-law constitutes a restriction of the freedom to provide services which cannot be justified by the supposed existence of a risk that the financial balance of the social security system would be seriously undermined or by the essential features of the Portuguese national health system (the right, not to reimbursement, but to the care itself). Similarly, the Court stated that no provision is made under Portuguese law for the reimbursement of costs of, for example, consultation with a general practitioner or dentist, without prior authorisation. Since there is no possibility of reimbursement for that type of care, the Court concluded that Portugal has failed to fulfil its obligations under the principle of the freedom to provide services. (FG/transl.rt)