ABSTRACT
The striking thing about European Union (EU) health policy is that it exists at all. It is an administratively and politically complex social and economic sector, which is immensely expensive, redistributive, and interwoven with national identities. EU public health dates back to the founding Treaties of the EU, which adopted a formulation commonly found in international trade law in which member states could avoid an obligation to open markets on grounds of public health protection. Health care is a particularly clear case of the Court leading integration, and most EU health policy scholarship. Rather, reflecting its history, EU health policy has three faces (or images), each with distinct politics: public health, health care and fiscal governance. The key implication of fiscal policy developments for health is that no expenditure category as large and inflationary as health care can escape oversight.
