Cross-border alliances in health care: international co-operation between health insurers and providers in the Euregio Meuse-Rhine.

On behalf of the European Commission, a Cross-Border Health Care Project was undertaken to explore how citizens living in the Euregio Meuse-Rhine can obtain improved access to health services in the Member States concerned: Belgium, Germany, and The Netherlands. Main attention of the project is focused on practical issues of cross-border health care. The first results have shown that the new cross-border health alliances resulted in improved possibilities for patients to access more health care facilities than before. The creation of health care alliances could also be an example for future collaboration between the countries in Western, Central, and Eastern Europe. This paper also analyses the rights of patients on cross-border care in the Euregion.