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The Press: Civil liberty groups claim the new EU health card marks the first step towards an EU-wide Identity Card, which will include intrusive information of all kinds.

(Daily Telegraph, 21 October, 2003)

 
The Facts: The European Health Card, which is to enter into force in June 2004, is a way to reduce bureaucracy when accessing healthcare in another member state, for example when there on holiday or a business trip. It will replace the confusing number of forms currently required, and citizens will no longer need to have supplementary forms delivered by national authorities, as is the case in some Member States. 

 The card is not a social security card. It is not a first stage of a European identity card. It will not contain information on patients, if the national card on which it is based does not already do so (some Member States already have emergency information such as blood group on the card, for use in the case of an accident). It will bestow no new rights or obligations on citizens. Its aim is to simplify the process to access healthcare in another Member State, to reduce bureaucracy and to make it easier to move within the European Union.

Notes:

Tony Blair links the health card to ID cards:  The benefit that you get as an individual is that you are able to access services, you are able to get around more easily, for example at the moment if you want to get your medical records online, you can’t because of the worries over identity. You would be able to do that.

 
The Telegraph: The European Commission said yesterday that the final phase in 2008 would add a “smart chip” containing a range of data, including health files and records of treatment received. “The ultimate objective is to have an electronic chip on the card, as the technology improves,” said a spokesman.

And the government are linking the Id cards and health cards. Health Minister John Hutton MP dripped some more in Parliament earlier this week, in answer to a query about any assessment the Department of Health had done of how the EU health access card might be integrated with “other proposed UK entitlement and identity cards.” He answered that the Department was working in three areas, EU card, NHS card and national ID card, and was “considering how in the medium term this work programme can best be integrated, so as to maximise the benefits for patients and frontline services.”

EU  history teaches us to be very wary of claims  made as to the initial reasons for a project, the EU has a tendency to begin something low key and then gradually add to that, step by step. As is the case with  these health cards it is already cards  The European Commission said yesterday that the final phase in 2008 would add a “smart chip” containing a range of data, including health files and records of treatment received. “The ultimate objective is to have an electronic chip on the card, as the technology improves,”