engleski

Role of the National Courts in Facilitating Slovenian Patients’ Access to Cross-Border Health Care Outside Slovenia

Cross-border health care has been a hot topic in the EU following the first judgements of the European Court of Justice in 1998. The described development was codified in 2011 by the Directive 2011/24 on the application of patients’ rights in cross-border health care, which was to be transposed by 25 October 2013. The case-law and the Directive have had an important impact upon the way the Member States regulate access of patients socially covered by their health systems to medical treatments in other countries of the Union. One of the countries, where major changes in the legal framework on cross-border health have taken place, is Slovenia. A significant role in these changes belongs to the national courts of the said Member State. The aim of the presentation is to investigate the case-law by the Slovenian courts and see whether this jurisprudence has had a ground- breaking impact upon the entitlement of patients socially insured in Slovenia to access health care in other Member States. The presentation first describes the main points of contention between the EU law on cross- border health care and (some) EU Member States. This is followed by a description of the Slovenian legal framework before the implementation of the said EU rules in Slovenia. Next, the jurisprudence by the Slovenian courts is presented focusing on the way it has changed the legal landscape concerning cross-border health care in Slovenia. Finally, it is submitted, on the basis of the Slovenian example, that the national courts have an important role to play in trail blazing patients’ right to access cross-border health care in the EU.

national courts ; cross-border health care ; Slovenia

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