Medical surcharge

Medical surcharge is a real problem in Luxembourg whose first victims are Contract Agents as well as the AST’s recruited at the basic ranks (AST/SC, AST1).

In our leaflet dated 13 September 2016 (link to the flyer), Union Syndicale Fédérale Luxembourg explained that, on the basis of the Council and Parliament Directive 2011/24 the end of the medical surcharge to Luxembourg might occur.

As a reminder, Member States shall ensure that health care providers apply, on their territory, to “patients” from other Member States, the same scale of healthcare fees as for national patients in a similar medical situation.

This does not affect the provisions of national law which allow health care providers to set their own prices, provided that they do not discriminate against patients from other Member States.

In a note addressed to the President of the European Court of Justice’s Personnel Committee dated 1 February 2017, the Director of the PMO confirmed:

• the imperfect transposition by the Luxembourg National Authorities of the Directive 2011/24/EU of the Grand-Ducal law ;
• opening a dialogue with the Luxembourg Hospitals Federation (FHL), prelude to the referral of the National Health Fund Authorities (CNS) which was made concrete by the meeting of a delegation of the JSIS with high officials of the FHL and exposed the grievances of our services with respect to the pricing of the medical services system imposed by the Grand Duchy to the beneficiaries of the JSIS.
• This delegation has meant to his interlocutors that the agreement entered into with the « Agreement with Luxembourg Hospitals » (EHL) under the auspices of the CNS currently devotes not only prohibitive and unjustified, but clearly discriminatory, rates for members of the JSIS.
• This meeting concluded with a commitment, from Luxembourg, to continue negotiating on the basis of recent and reliable data, given such recent advances in medical science and the “trivialization” of previously considered medical procedures ,as being within the purview of high-tech medicine.

The Union Syndicale Fédérale Luxembourg is following this matter with the greatest attention and will keep the personnel of the institutions informed of any changes in this file.