Health costs: UFC-Que Choisir warns of soaring fee overruns

Has seeing a doctor become a luxury? This is what the consumer association UFC Que Choisir implies, which in its latest study warns of the “soaring price of care” in France. This surge in prices, which primarily penalizes the most modest, is explained in particular by the generalization of “fee overruns”, these prices higher than the Social Security convention rates. More than half of specialist doctors now use it, according to UFC-Que Choisir.

In detail, Health Insurance data, compiled by the consumer association, show that 52% of private specialist doctors applied an excess fee in 2021, when they were still only 45% doing so. have recourse in 2016. Gynecologists are, by far, the most popular specialty since 70% of practitioners are exempt from the basic Social Security rates.

In 2022, gynecologists' fees were on average 20 euros higher than the basic consultation rate set at 30 euros. Ophthalmologists are not left out, since a large majority of them (67%) also exceed the Health Insurance rate, for an average excess of 13 euros. Then come the anesthetists, for whom the average excess exceeds, again, ten euros.

As these figures are only national averages, the score is likely to be much higher depending on the territory. As UFC-Que Choisir points out, consulting the same specialist can be “up to 2.5 times more expensive from one department to another”. It is in Paris that patients risk having the most unpleasant surprises, since the capital is at the top of the excesses, followed by the rest of Île-de-France and the southern departments (Alpes-Maritimes and Var notably). Thus a patient wishing to consult an anesthetist will struggle to get by with less than fifty euros in fees if they are in the departments of Hauts-de-Seine, Val-de-Marne, Somme de la Haute -Saône, or in Paris.

Generally speaking, finding a “sector 1” specialist doctor – who does not charge overcharges – is like an obstacle course in certain localities. To remedy this growing distance from the conventional rate, Que Choisir calls for “the closure of access to sector 2 (free fees) for new arrivals”. The association would like new doctors to have no other possibility of excess than those included within the framework of the “Optam” system which authorizes more limited excess fees than “sector 2”. The Optam practitioner is, for example, required to keep one of the conventional fees for part of his patient base.