ABSTRACT
This chapter traces the background and context of the current situation in health. It focuses some key areas of concern: constitutional policy-making and policy content issues that have become more evident as European policies on health have been unfolding, including the basis and context of governance of national health systems. Incremental changes and decisions on the health policy front and the creeping nature of European involvement have implied that it has been possible to tolerate and accommodate further integration, inspite of negative implications for health systems, alongside redefinition of European influence. Health policies and social security systems are also affected by broader European Union (EU) priorities and policy emphases. Particular constitutional issue to evolving EU competence relates to the ways in which different aspects of health policy issues and priorities were included in the Lisbon Treaty. In the 1990s, member states and public health activists sought to engage with the Commission on matters concerning public health and health promotion.
