Repository logo
 

Health Technology Assessment and Health Care Reimbursement in the European Union: Permissive Dissensus and the Limits of Harmonization through the Backdoor.

Accepted version
Peer-reviewed

No Thumbnail Available

Type

Article

Change log

Authors

Löblová, Olga 

Abstract

Member states have consistently limited the European Union's competences in the area of health care reimbursement. Despite these efforts, there has been a slow but steady tendency toward harmonization of a key tool in reimbursement decision-making: health technology assessment (HTA), a multidisciplinary evaluation of "value for money" of medicines, devices, diagnostics, and interventions, which provides expert advice for reimbursement decisions. This article examines the origins of this paradoxical appetite for harmonization as well as of the dissensus that has, at the moment, somewhat stalled further integration in HTA. It finds that the prointegration neofunctionalist "permissive dissensus" is still present in decision making on HTA but potentially offset by dissensus or outright opposition from key actors, including member states and the medical device industry. These actors are able to decipher the potential consequences of highly technical issues, such as HTA, for national systems of social protection. Despite that, they have little interest in politicizing the issue, potentially opening the door to integrative policy solutions in the future.

Description

Keywords

European integration, harmonization, health care reimbursement, health technology assessment, permissive dissensus, Decision Making, Dissent and Disputes, European Union, Health Expenditures, Humans, Public Policy, Reimbursement Mechanisms, Technology Assessment, Biomedical

Journal Title

J Health Polit Policy Law

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

0361-6878
1527-1927

Volume Title

46

Publisher

Duke University Press

Rights

All rights reserved