EU executive to make cross-border treatment easier

By Huw Jones and Marcin Grajewski

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Patients in the European Union can get treatment outside their home state without pre-approval from their doctor under draft rules to be adopted this week.

The European Commission will present the measure as part of a wider package to push forward what it calls "social Europe".

Among the elements is reform of healthcare for patients, a sector guarded as a national domain.

A Commission official told Reuters that patients would be allowed to get treated in another EU state, a step states like Britain may find challenging.

"Pre-authorisation will not be required," the official said on condition of anonymity.

The patient's home healthcare service will have to pay the bill -- but only up to the same amount the treatment would cost in the home state, the official said. Where the cost of the treatment is bigger, the patient will foot the difference.

"The challenge is to give more opportunities and guarantees to citizens without affecting the financial sustainability of national health systems," the Commission said in a statement.

The move aims to bring EU rules in line with recent European Court of Justice rulings, such as in 2006 when it said Britain's health service should pay nearly 4,000 pounds for a hip replacement for Yvonne Watts who travelled to France.