The European Court of Justice rules against German health insurance rules on reimbursement of ’health cures’ in other countries. Case C-8/02, between Ludwig Leichte and the Bundesanstalt für Arbeit was finalised in March 2004.
As part of their employment conditions, German civil servants have the right to a ’health cure’ but the reimbursement rules state that ’cures’ in other countries can only be covered if a medical officer stated that the cure had to be undertaken abroad because of ’greatly increased prospects of success’. The reimbursement covers travel, accommodation and the treatment itself.
The case was brought by an individual who wanted to take a ’cure’ in Italy but was initially refused by the German insurance fund. The individual appealed this decision and travelled for the treatment before the final resolution of the court case.
The cost of the treatment itself was not questioned (and had even been reimbursed) but it was the associated costs (travel, accommodation etc) that were in question. The ECJ ruled that by creating more stringent rules for health cures in other countries, this was a ’deterrent’ for individuals seeking service providers in another country.
This is in contravention of Article 49 of the Treaty, on freedom to provide services.
The ECJ stated that no convincing arguments had been put forward to demonstrate that the stricter rules on health cures abroad met the criteria in the EU Treaty to allow a derogation from Article 49. These criteria include the necessity to maintain national medical capacity or competence essential for the protection of health, and to avoid harm to the financial equilibrium of the social security system.
