“Frankly, retirees what they want today is first of all to have doctors. I can tell you that today the real subject is these five million French people who do not have a doctor. treating”, said presidential candidate LR, interviewed Monday, February 14 on RTL. It’s true, but not necessarily for the reasons mentioned by Valérie Pécresse.
According to Health Insurance, in 2020, there were nearly 5.4 million French people who did not have a doctor, or nearly one in ten French people.
But not all of them were retirees. Still according to Health Insurance, half of them are rather young and healthy patients.
In an interview with the specialized magazine The generalistthe former director of Health Insurance, Nicolas Revel, assured that this category corresponded to people who “did not seek” to find a treating physician. The other half, he explained, “are in real search of a regular practitioner, often because they have not been able to find one when their GP retires” . Nicolas Revel showed his concern about this situation, which concerned “a significant number of patients with ALD, over 70 or suffering from a chronic pathology”.
According to a survey by the UFC Que Choisir association, nearly one out of two GPs (44%) simply refuses to become the doctor treating new patients, 71% of them declaring that they already have too many patients.
Although it is not compulsory to have an attending physician, this remains central to our healthcare system. This allows you to be better cared for and also better reimbursed. Without a treating doctor, the consultation is no longer reimbursed at 70% but only at 30%.
However, Health Insurance has implemented a system since 2019 so that French people who cannot find a treating doctor are no longer penalized. In particular, they can report to the mediator of their health insurance fund. This allows the fund to maintain reimbursements at 70%, while the mediator helps these patients find a doctor.