Who wants to cross borders in the EU for health care?: an analysis of the Eurobarometer data in 2007 and 2014

• Autor(a) principal: Santos, André Peralta
• Data de Publicação: 2017
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10362/55066
• topic: Cross-border; Patient mobility; EU Health Policy; Cuidados transfronteiriços; Mobilidade; Política de saúde da UE; Domínio/Área Científica::Ciências Sociais::Outras Ciências Sociais

ABSTRACT - BACKGROUND The EU Directive on cross-border healthcare clarified the entitlements of EU citizens to medical care in other EU Member states. However, little is known about whether EU citizens have been travelling or are willing to travel to receive medical care. The aim of this study was to measure the determinants of cross-border patient mobility and willingness to travel to receive medical care in the EU, before and after the adoption of the Directive. METHODS We used individual data from the Eurobarometer 210 (2007) and 425 (2014). In the two years, 54,384 EU citizens were randomly selected for telephone and face-to-face interviews. We performed a logistic regression on the cross-border patient mobility and willingness to travel to other EU countries to use healthcare services as a function of the year (2007 or 2014), adjusting for age, gender, education, self perceived health (SPH), and country size. RESULTS In 2007, 3.3% of citizens reported cross-border mobility, and 4.6% in 2014. The odds of cross-border patients’ mobility was 15% higher in 2014, compared to 2007 (OR 1.15, 95%CI 1.05-1.26, p<.001). In addition, mobility was 15% higher in males (OR 1.15, 95%CI 1.05-1.3, p<0.001) and 20% amongst the more educated (OR 1.2, 95%CI 1.1- 1.3, p<.001). However, the odds decreased with age (OR 0.9 per decade, 95%CI 0.84- 0.92, p<.001), bad and very bad SPH, and country size. In 2014 the willingness to travel decreased by 22% compared to 2007. The other determinants of willingness to travel, namely gender, age, education, SHP, and country size, had a similar effect as in the cross-border mobility model. CONCLUSIONS Cross-border patient mobility and willingness to travel are more likely amongst younger, more educated, and healthier patients from smaller countries. The 2011 directive does not seem to have promoted mobility at a large scale among the neediest citizens.