It’s a general practitioner who gives it to us.
Taking care of yourself is essential to staying healthy but can be difficult at certain times in life due to lack of money. So what do you do when you can’t pay the doctor? In France, there are solutions for people with modest incomes. Among them: request complementary health insurance (CSS) formerly called CMU. It is a support system for health expenses which can be completely free or cost less than 1 euro per day. “Depending on your income, your age and the number of people in your household, you will either not have to pay anything or you will have a small contribution to provide,” informs Dr Sylvain Bouquet, general practitioner, member of the College of General Medicine (CMG).
Poor people with health concerns can also go to PASS (Permanent Access to Hospital Health Care). These hospital care units offer general medicine consultations and specialized consultations. Patients can benefit from free nursing care, blood tests, medical imaging and treatments. “You should not hesitate to contact a social worker to take stock. In the event of expensive health care, a request for exceptional coverage can be sent to social security through the medical advisor.”
There are also solutions available to all French people, without means requirements, when you have difficulty paying the doctor. First, go to a health center. These centers open to all systematically practice third-party payment so there is only the mutual share to be advanced (which reduces the bill). You just need to have mutual insurance, which is obligatory for anyone who works, or to benefit from CSS. Finally, Dr Sylvain Bouquet reminds us of another valuable piece of advice.
It involves speaking directly to your general practitioner about your financial difficulties: “Today, with teletransmission and the Carte Vitale, it is very easy to make third-party payments. As a doctor, you are reimbursed in three days. Our software also allows us to make mutual third-party payments. We don’t do it much because it takes time so we can’t do it for everyone, but we can do it for patients who have financial difficulties.“In this case, the patient has nothing to advance… and few know it.
