Economically inactive Union citizens residing in a Member State other than the one from which they originate are entitled to be affiliated to the public health insurance system of the host Member State, the European Court of Justice confirmed, sitting as a Grand Chamber, in a judgment (Case C-535/19) delivered on Thursday 15 July. However, it states that the host State may provide that such membership is not free of charge in order to avoid the persons concerned becoming an unreasonable burden on its public finances.
The Latvian Supreme Court asked the European judges whether the Latvian authorities’ refusal to affiliate an Italian citizen living in Latvia and married to a local national in the public health insurance system was legal under EU law, on the grounds that the Italian citizen, who was economically inactive, did not fall into any of the categories of beneficiaries of State-funded medical care provided for under national law (employed or self-employed).
In its judgment, the Court confirms the right of the person concerned to be affiliated to the Latvian national health insurance system in order to be able to receive care in that country and the illegality of the Latvian authorities’ refusal under their legislation.
It based its judgment on a combination of the provisions of the European Regulation on the coordination of social security systems (EC No. 883/2004) which stipulates in Article 11(3)(e) that economically inactive persons are, in principle, subject to the legislation of the Member States of residence in order to receive social security benefits (in this case, health care) and the Directive on freedom of movement and residence (2004/38/EC), which stipulates (Article 7(1)(b)) that, for the entire period of residence in the host Member State of more than three months and less than five years, an economically inactive EU citizen must have comprehensive health insurance for themselves and their family.
The Court notes, however, that those provisions do not preclude the host Member State from making the affiliation to its health insurance system of EU citizens in the situation of the person concerned subject to conditions such as the conclusion or maintenance, by those persons, of comprehensive private health insurance, in order to enable them to reimburse the health costs which the State incurs on their behalf, or a financial contribution to the public health insurance system. However, these conditions must remain affordable for the citizen in question, the Court concludes.
Read the press release: https://bit.ly/3hJPlc0 (Original version in French by Francesco Gariazzo)