Up to 14% of the Gironde population is not covered by mutual or complementary health insurance. Or nearly 230,000 people according to Health Insurance estimates. A public health scourge that goes under the radar. “ The non-recourse is an observation, there is an increasing renunciation of care with all the consequences that one can imagine », deplores Jacques Rainaud, departmental advisor in charge of health.
What to do when faced with abandoning this silent part? Insurance companies and mutual societies are working on this, but action by the private sector is not enough. After municipal and intercommunal initiatives, the Gironde department wants to reach the public far from health care. A call for partnership was launched for mutual organizations on April 9 and will close on June 7 to select a candidate capable of offering an advantageous contract to precarious populations.
An audience in a gray zone
“ We wanted to imagine a simpler accessibility system for mutual insurancetranslated Jacques Rainaud. The main criterion is that of the average monthly contribution with the introduction of three levels of guarantee. » The community also requires that you do not charge entry fees, apply a waiting period or request a medical questionnaire. The pricing conditions must be guaranteed for three years, i.e. the duration of the mutual commitment which will be selected at the end of the year. The launch is planned for January 2025.
The winner will then have to carry out their own communication actions to reach their target audience. “The department will relay the mutual offer, we can provide premises, consider public information meetings, but it is up to the candidate to position a global offer”, underlines Cécile Boucard, health project manager at the department. However, it is difficult to know precisely the population lacking health coverage, which is concentrated in low-income households among young people who are active or unemployed, elderly people on long-term health contracts or people with disabilities.
This Gironde mutual insurance will in any case affect people with precarious incomes. A public in a sort of gray zone which both earns too much to be able to claim complementary health insurance from Health Insurance and not enough to afford private complementary health insurance. “Many employers provide mutual insurance because the law requires them to do so, but the guarantees are sometimes very weak so employees do not always adhere to the approach”, also comments Jacques Rainaud. This is not the first initiative of its kind from the Gironde department, which is already working on a food social security system and has experimented with a form of universal income.
Medical deserts: “We welcome people who have not seen a doctor for three years”
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