Third-party payment is about to be generalized, no offense to the doctors. Despite strong criticism from the medical profession, which marked its opposition with several punching actions including the strike, article 18 of the health bill on the generalization of third-party payment was voted by the deputies with 23 votes against 12 at first reading.
The text defended tooth and nail by the Minister of Health Marisol Touraine should therefore become a right for all policyholders at the end of November 2017. The minister did not hide her satisfaction after the approval of the measure: “I am certain that, In ten years, we will no longer talk about third-party payment because it will have become a banality, a standard, a simplicity,” she pointed out to AFP. As for the tensions of the doctors, she wanted to be reassuring: “Many of the reluctances (of the liberal doctors) come from their concern about the technical and concrete implementation of the system”, which will be settled, according to her.
With generalized third-party payment, the patient will no longer have to advance the costs of the consultation, which will be directly covered by health insurance and complementary health insurance, for those who have one. This provision was proposed with the aim of broadening access to care, while 17% of French people give up care for financial reasons.
With this device, doctors will be paid by health insurance and complementary health, which raises fears about the risk of late payment. Doctors’ unions therefore take a dim view of what they consider to be a “gas plant” which, according to them, should add administrative “red tape”.
To reassure them, the Minister of Health has undertaken to ensure that social security ensures the payments of doctors within a week. An announcement that was not enough to calm the practitioners.
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