“The “emergency patient package” is like a real financial barrier for the most precarious people going to the emergency room”, denounce the activists of Doctors of the World.
- A reduced rate is provided for certain categories of patients as well as exemptions.
- Child victims of abuse, victims of terrorism and people sick with Covid-19 treated in the emergency room will, for example, not have to pay.
The Médecins du Monde association protests, in a press release, the implementation since January 1 of the “emergency patient package”, which provides for the payment of a single price of 19.61 euros in the event of a visit to the emergency room. not followed by hospitalization, and which will be the responsibility of the patient if he does not have complementary health insurance.
3 million people without complementary health insurance
“What we want goes against this measure: equal access to care for all, which would be made possible by truly supportive, inclusive, universal social security and with a high level of reimbursement”, explains Dr. Carine Rolland, President of Doctors of the World.
3 million people currently live in France without supplementary health insurance: unemployed people, retirees, small self-employed people, people entitled to AME but who do not benefit from it… In addition, some patients are unable to advance the sum requested from the emergency room, even if reimbursement can be made afterwards.
“Waiver of treatment”
“A large public will therefore be impacted by the emergency patient package and the risks are known: renouncement of care, delay in taking care of the poorest and increase in inequalities”, deplores Doctors of the World. Moreover, “emergencies were one of the last resorts for people who did not have care or a doctor, as in medical deserts for example”, say activists.
They also believe that overwhelmed emergencies are one of the symptoms of the crisis in the health system: hospitals on the verge of collapse, shortage of nursing staff, medical desertification, lack of regulation of primary care medicine… “Measurement is accountable while solving the problem requires a major paradigm shift”, concludes the association.
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