When Actors Abstain from Making Use of Europe

Following a series of landmark rulings by the European Court of Justice on cross-border healthcare, Europe now offers actors various resources to pursue their interests beyond the opportunities of their national healthcare system. This paper considers whether these actors use those European resources inside of their national healthcare system. It investigates actors in the Austrian healthcare system who regulate outpatient care. These actors show little to no use of such resources. The main thesis of this paper is therefore that this limited use of European resources can be best explained by the taking nationally institutionalized practices of corporatist and consensual negotiations into account, which prevent actors from making use of these resources.