Should we charge for hospital care for those who have not been vaccinated against Covid-19?
Regularly raised by a handful of elected radicals without the debate really emerging, this question has recently been propelled to the forefront of the media scene.
After the publication of a forum on January 25, 2022 in which he evokes the subject, Martin Hirsch gave the cover this Wednesday evening, during the France 5 program, C à vous, evoking "health expenses" which tend to explode because of "part of so-called 'irresponsible' behavior which calls into question everyone's solidarity".
“When a free prevention tool is available, can be used, is recognized by the scientific community as something useful and we give it up, do we give it up without any consequences?
“asked the director general of the AP-HP (Public Assistance-Hospitals of Paris).
Empower the unvaccinated a little more
And to continue: “Or do we reach out our hand to treat but we say that there is no reason why there should not be consequences when there will be some for the other patients that will be difficult to treat and which they can do nothing about it, ”he concludes, leaving it to the experts to decide.
"I don't want to close the door of the hospital and of care to anyone: but you have to be allied with the responsibility that allows everyone to benefit from it."
Covid-19: should the non-vaccinated benefit from free care?
@MartinHirsch wonders.#CàVous pic.twitter.com/Lz6QyaLKI2
— C to you (@cavousf5) January 26, 2022
Even expressed with caution, the idea of making the non-vaccinated pay for their choice deemed inconsequential or selfish by some doctors is reacting, while the hospital is pushing back the care of many non-Covid-19 patients, which reduces the chances of remission in the case of cancers, for example.
"We obviously treat people who have taken risks (...) Creating case law does not seem to me a good idea", condemned Gilles Pialoux, the head of the infectious and tropical diseases department of the Tenon hospital in Paris, guest of LCI this Thursday morning.
A handful of elected officials try to bring out the debate without success
"I do not agree that we enter into this type of approach", also sweeps the PS candidate in the presidential election, Anne Hidalgo.
"On the contrary, in our country, we must have a real public health policy which we do not have," she added on BFMTV this Thursday morning.
This is not the first time that Martin Hirsch has wondered: "Is it logical to benefit from free healthcare when you have refused free vaccination for yourself and you are doubly endangering others, by being able to contaminate them and by being able to take a place in intensive care necessary for another patient?
“, he had written in a column for the presidential election, published in Le Monde on January 25.
Regularly, a handful of elected officials try to bring out the debate, without success for the moment since neither the government nor the caregivers have really taken it up.
An amendment to this effect was tabled on Thursday, December 30 (and since rejected) by Sébastien Huyghe, LR deputy from the North.
A year ago already, Guillaume Lacroix, president of the Radical Left Party, already carried this idea.
