Everyone in the EU will have a "health insurance card" by 2005, guaranteeing the right to free medical care in all 15 member states under plans being unveiled today.
The European Commission says it is putting one of the last remaining pieces in the jigsaw of "worker mobility" - enabling all citizens to move around the EU freely and without red tape and paperwork.
The electronic health card - the size and format of a credit card - will replace the current E111 form which people fill in to qualify for subsidised medical help if needed when they travel abroad.
The E111 was condemned as a "dinosaur from another age" by a Commission spokesman.
Its successor creates no new rights and will not contain information on the holder's medical condition.
But it guarantees hospitals and doctors abroad that costs of treating visitors will be met by the issuing authority - a guarantee currently requiring the need to fill in the E111 which, in many EU countries, has to be renewed for every trip abroad.
In the EU jargon the health card removes "an obstacle to mobility" for all who travel in the EU - and officials say it is another strong symbol of Europe: "another piece of Europe in your pocket".
The health card and a raft of proposals also put forward today to help foster job and geographical mobility are the latest moves in 20 years of EU measures which have opened national borders and dismantled outdated rules and restrictions hindering the free movement of people, goods, services and finance.
Today's "action plan" for delivering full "worker mobility" by 2005 will be presented to EU leaders at their summit in Barcelona next month in the hope that governments will approve the contents and meet the deadline.
By then, the hope is that anyone can pick up the health card from the same departments that currently supply E111 forms, but they will need to do so only once.
"The challenge is to fill in the gaps in the rights of people to live, work and travel in other EU member states," said a Commission spokesman.
PA