On January 17, the Department of Administrative Cases of the Senate annulled the judgment of the Regional Administrative Court rejecting the application of the applicant - an Italian citizen - regarding a decision of the National Health Service refusing to include the applicant in the register of health care recipients and to issue to him a European Health Insurance Card.

In the present case, the applicant, who moved to live with his family in Latvia, was denied the right to receive state-funded health care services. The Senate, seeing that the applicant, who has exercised his right to free movement, has been denied access to both the Italian and Latvian health care systems, and a situation has arisen that the applicant has been denied protection in the field of social security in general, on July 9, 2019 stayed the proceedings in the case to request a preliminary ruling from the Court of Justice of the European Union.

Having evaluated the answers received by the Court of Justice of the European Union, the Senate in its judgement refers to the conclusions provided by the Court of Justice of the European Union, namely that an economically inactive citizen of the European Union has the right to be included in the public health insurance system, at the same time, the state has the right to make participation in this system subject to conditions so that the person does not become an excessive burden on the state's public finances. The Senate points out that in assessing whether and how the state provides access to the public health care system, the account must also be taken of the information pointed out by the Court of Justice of the European Union, namely, in case the state imposes conditions on participation in the national health insurance system, the state must nevertheless ensure that the principle of proportionality is complied with and that it is not excessively difficult for that citizen of the European Union to comply with such conditions.

It follows from the ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union that a member state may not, in accordance with its national law, refuse to include in its public health insurance system a citizen of the European Union to whom, in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 883/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2004 on the coordination of social security systems, Article 11, (3) (e), the legislation of that member state applies. Accordingly, a provision of the Regulation requires that the citizen of the European Union, as an applicant (who is economically inactive and exercises his right of residence in accordance with Directive 2004/38/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2004 on the right of citizens of the Union and their family members to move and reside freely within the territory of the Member States, Article 7 (1) (b), and thus subject to Latvian social security legislation) could be included in the public health insurance system of that member state as a publicly funded healthcare system.

The Senate points out in its judgment that the application of the provisions of Section 17 of the Medical Treatment Law may not contradict the interpretation of the provisions of the European Union law contained in the judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union. When applying the provisions of Latvian law in accordance with the above-mentioned conclusions of the Court of Justice of the European Union, it must not result in the applicant being, in essence, completely excluded from the Latvian public health insurance system. The judgment of the Regional Court acknowledges that Section 17, Paragraph five of the Medical Treatment Law is applicable to the applicant's situation. Namely, the applicant does not belong to the categories of persons referred to in Paragraphs one, three and four of the Section, who have the right to receive medical services funded from the state basic budget and funds of service recipients, therefore he or she has the right to receive medical services for a fee. Thus, in essence, the applicant is in the same situation as any person excluded from the public healthcare system, and is systematically barred from participating in it in any way. As this does not comply with Regulation 883/2004, Article 11 (3) (e), the judgment of the Regional Court cannot be recognized as grounded and lawful, therefore the Senate has annulled the judgment and remitted the case.

The judgment. Case No SKA-5/2022 (A420273216)

 

Information prepared by Baiba Kataja, the Press Secretary of the Supreme Court
Tel.: +371 67020396; e-mail: baiba.kataja@at.gov.lv