Health is Wealth: Strategic Visions for European Healthcare at the Beginning of the 21st Century, Report of the European Parliament - Hardcover

[ The main goal of this cluster is the optimisation of the medical arts and science. In a graphical representation of human life, the lifespan or time can be shown on a horizontal axis, and the incidences of disease or health can be shown on a vertical axis. Throughout, patient exists in his personal environment, in his individual pri­ vate sphere. th In the late 20 century, medical arts and sciences have achieved enormous pro­ gress resulting in highly effective diagnosis and therapy. Today in Europe, a main concern of our society centres around non-communi­ cable diseases, because communicable diseases have been dramatically reduced by past intensive socio-hygienic programmes. Nevertheless, medicine in Europe must be always alert to fight communicable diseases such as TB, AIDS, SARS etc. Medicine has been very successful in the past in fighting communicable and non-communicable diseases. This has resulted in an increase of our lifespan, and an ageing population. Table 1 shows life expectancy in Europe in 2001. This varies in EU member states from 78.6 up to 82.2 years in females, from 73.7 to 74.6 years in males. In the candidate countries, life expectancy varies in females from 75.2 to 78.1 years and from 66.1 to 71.1 years in males. Table 2 shows the remaining life­ span at age 65, which is much higher in the EU member states than in the candidate countries. This increasing life expectancy dramatically alters the structure of our society.

The uniqueness of human dignity must remain at the centre of all efforts to achieve this goal. They have to be maximised to serve members of society throughout their lives, both for cure and prevention. However, preventive medicine can only be practised in partnership with individuals acting responsibly. A healthcare system on a European scale is an enormous endeavour. Currently, there are severe differences evident in the national provisions. The dichotomy has to be addressed where individual national structures are oriented toward European standards, while the care to the individual is delivered locally. The Strategic Vision aims to address the need for an overall strategy that can be adapted and implemented on the local bases. It puts a specific emphasis upon cost containment. New mechanisms have to be implemented to control the cost of healthcare. Clear rules for delivery are needed to prevent the advent of multi-class healthcare. This requires the development of a new underlying philosophic paradigm.