Lobby Observatory denounces privatisation of health care in Europe as putting lives at stake during COVID-19

A report by the Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) denounces the privatisation of health care as contributing to the marketisation of the health and care for older people, with catastrophic effects during the Covid-19 pandemic, particularly in old people's homes.

"When the market becomes dealdy" shows how the economic performance-based approach of health and long-term care and the cuts in public spending encouraged by the European Semester - the EU’s economic and budgetary policy coordination processes - have weakened EU countries’ capacity to address the COVID-19 pandemic.

The non-governmental organisation  denounces the influence of the private health lobby, which would take advantage of the pandemic to demand more public money, including from EU stimulus funds. 

“COVID-19 has been a wake-up call for many, a reminder that we have a choice in how our vital public services are run", states the report.

"The shifts that have led to greater privatisation of healthcare, the casualisation of care work, and the erosion and underfunding of the public sector are the result of political decisions at national and European levels”… “As plans for a European Health Union get under way, it is vital to safeguard the public not-for-profit nature of healthcare provision in Europe, and ensure that COVID-19 recovery funds are not siphoned off to for-profit providers." 

Link to CEO’s report: https://bit.ly/2YhT8Td