Evolution of the Eu Role in Healthcare Policy-Making and Implementation

Abstract

The article deals with the paradigm shift in the health policy of the European Union, its role, and functions. An attempt to reveal the main stages in the development of the European Community is being made. The aim of the article is to identify the sources and directions for the evolution of the importance and role of the EU health policy, related to the systematic transformation of sociopolitical and socioeconomic conditions in the European Community. It is summarized that the EU has made efforts to develop general legislation in this field and has strengthened its role in protecting the citizens` rights of Member stated in terms of funding, the introduction of common standards for healthcare services, and ensuring the accessibility to healthcare services. The author tries to highlight the main stages of the development of the EU`s health policy. Firstly, the financial and administrative stage; secondly, the regulatory and political integration; thirdly, the reaction stage. According to the analyzed healthcare policy crisis caused by COVID-19, it was supposed to be the next stage related to the transformation of the European Union`s healthcare policy. Examining the changing role of the EU health policy-making, the author uses a normative approach. The institutional method has made it possible to determine the place and role of the EU institutions in the implementation of healthcare policy. The methods of analysis and synthesis, induction, and deduction are also used in this article to study the evolution of the EU policy. Prospects for further research in the field of healthcare policy can be an analysis of conditions, ways, and prospects of overcoming the current healthcare crisis and the possibility of using such experience within the Ukrainian realities.