Where the EU stands on global health, including health financing

The EU’ s position on Global Health is being defined as we speak. Last week, I attended the launch of the Communique (see global-health-comm-final for more information), to which we submitted evidence a few months ago. It was great to see that health as a human right had taken centre stage, that the need for the EU to support domestic financing in low-income countries was included, and, of course, that the EU should support universal coverage and progressive financing, including the abolition of user fees. It’s a great stride forward for the EU, which has been sitting on the fence — particularly on user fees — for a while.

This Communique is now being discussed at the EU’s Council’s level. This means that the wording of the Communique is being negotiated. We know that there are different views across EU countries on how health systems should be financed, for example. But it seems that an agreement has been reached by all partners that user fees should be avoided and progressive financing implemented. This is a fantastic achievement, and we can be proud of having played a role in getting there. I will blog again when the  final EU conclusions are released.

But, know this: the EU stands for progressive financing and is against user fees!