Groningen Centre for Health Law

With the high number of asylum seekers arriving in Europe, states increasingly struggle to simultaneously accommodate the interests of their citizens and abide by their human rights obligations.

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The goal of UHC (Universal Health Coverage) is to ‘ensure that all people obtain the health services they need without suffering financial hardship when paying for them’. There are many dense connections between the goal of UHC, and the State’s legal obligation to realize the human right to the highest attainable standard of health (‘right to health’). In light of this goal, it is important to assess private sector involvement in the health sector. For example, private actors may not always have the incentives to deal with externalities that affect availability, accessibility, acceptability, and quality of health care related services; they may not be in the position to provide ‘public goods’; or they may be subjected to imperfect information. The main question that this paper sets out to answer is: what are the legal human rights obligations imposed on States to regulate private sector involvement in healthcare?

Due to the consistently high inflow of asylum seekers, tensions are rising in several European countries. Germany is especially challenged to provide basic reception rights in accordance with international human rights standards.

In 2012, Spain adopted significant legislative changes with regard to the universal right to health care. Due to these changes, the universal right to health care is currently at risk. In order to allow for a better understanding of the relevance of these measures, I will briefly outline the evolution of the Spanish National Healthcare System (NHS) as well as the recent changes.