Health Consumer Powerhouse

Index presentation to the health minister of the Netherlands

October 5 the Health Consumer Powerhouse is invited to the Hague to present the EuroHealth Consumer Index 2005 to mr Hans Hoogervorst, the Dutch minister of health, and his staff.

XV Economic Forum

At the XV Economic Forum in Krynica Polen The HealthConsumerPowerhouse President Johan Hjertqvist made introduction remarks at the presentation of the book Poles apart. His remarks where on the topic "The European health care consumer".
Read the presentationt

UK presidency: making patient mobility a key health topic

The UK will take over the rotating presidency of the European Union July 1. Ahead of this change a senior diplomat recently held a health policy briefing at Brussels think tank The Centre .

Media Comments EHCI

European media on the Index

"Mediocre results for the Belgian healthcare", is the headline of the Belgian newspaper la Derniere Heure reporting on the EuroHealth Consumer Index 2005. In the news coverage this daily points to the indicator displaying that Belgian consumers today have direct access to a specialist. That might change, says DH, as the Belgian government wants to give economic incentives to people contracting a gatekeeper GP. It is promising, finds this paper, that the Index will be updated annually to cover changes to come among the health care systems.

Also the Flemish-speaking Belgian paper Het Nieuwsblad reports on the outcomes putting Belgium in the fourth row together with Estonia and Sweden.

In Netherlands - the Index winner - the Reformatorisch Dagblad reports "Top scores for Netherland care". In the opposite outcomes end the leading Italian daily la Repubblica finds:"Healthcare: Italy next to bottom regarding consumer focus", finding that though some positive outcomes there seem to be a number of weak spots in the Italian health care.

The Times in UK finds that "Britain´s mediocre healthcare does poorly", expressing some excitement of the Index giving UK good scores for its policy on pharmaceuticals (subsidy rate and speed of licensed drugs entering the reimbursement system).

In Sweden two big dailies provide editorial comments on the Index. The Expressen finds that Swedish health care is technically advanced (4th re medical outcomes) but far too bureaucratic to meet the demand. And the Svenska Dagbladet draws similar conclusions: "We can be proud of the medical outcomes...but together with UK we have the longest waiting lines".

The Reuters Health Information gives a lengthy description of the Index outcomes based on an interview with dr Arne Bjornberg, the Powerhouse Index manager. Also the BBC Health News reports on "UK health ranked ninth in Europe", adding a comment from a spokeswoman for the UK´s department of Health. Not surprisingly this government source seeks comfort (thinking of the rating of NHS waiting lists and killer bug infection risk) in the request for typical top-down indicators, like the OECD life expectancy figures. Such statistics though say very little of the daily care quality offered to the consumer, which is the main idea behind our Index.

The Ministry of Health in the Hague is more pleased. In a statement the minister Hans Hoogervorst finds the Index a good initiative, increasing the transparency of health care to the gain of the citizens.