“Third-party payment for everyone in 2017 is off to a bad start”. This is the first sentence of an article published in Les Echos and dated March 1. According to the economic newspaper, the government will probably “beat a retreat” on this important measure of the Health Bill worn by Marisol Touraine.
Originally, the measure aimed to ensure that all patients could benefit from this waiver of advance medical expenses, as soon as 2017.
But according to Les Echos, “a scent of capitulation hangs in the air, two weeks before the deadline for tabling amendments”. The newspaper recalls that the revised text will be examined by the deputies in committee from March 17, two days after the major demonstration of doctors scheduled for March 15. The economic newspaper also underlines that “the main unions of doctors, usually so disunited, will march hand in hand with the heads of clinics and the interns of the hospitals, among others. »
Concern about reimbursement
For several months, the government has indeed come up against a block refusal of this proposal by doctors, joined by manyother occupations of the medical world. Why such a reaction to a sensible measure to simplify the lives of patients and push the poorest to consult? Health professionals actually fear administrative setbacks, pointing to “delays in payment of the Social Security consultation, or even rejections. The economic newspaper thus explains that “the median time is 4 days when there is an electronic transmission” by vital card, while “it climbs to 42 days with a paper care sheet”. In the latter case, “it is up to the Liberals to advance the costs” write Les Echos, without certainty of being reimbursed one day.
Questioned by the economic daily, the president of the MG France union Claude Leicher underlines that the parallel with the generalized third-party payment in pharmacies is not valid, since “the pharmacists rigorously check the rights of each one before opening the third-party payment, and they can pay for an assistant to check afterwards that they have been reimbursed”, which is not necessarily the case for liberal doctors according to him.
One possible compromise envisaged would be to initially reserve the third-party payment to the 30 long-term illnesses (ALD) which benefit from 100% coverage of care by the health insurance fund.
Read also :
Health Bill: 41 unions demand the withdrawal of the text
Third-party payment: mutuals have a common system
The majority of French people are in favor of generalized third-party payment among doctors