Proposition de loi instaurant la gratuité des consultations chez le médecin généraliste.
General information ¶
- Authors
- PVDA | PTB Raoul Hedebouw, Sofie Merckx, Marco Van Hees, Thierry Warmoes
- Submission date
- Oct. 1, 2019
- Official page
- Visit
- Status
- Rejected
- Requirement
- Simple
- Subjects
- health policy health care free medical care public health
Voting ¶
- Abstained from voting
- LE DéFI PVDA | PTB
Contact form ¶
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Discussion ¶
June 22, 2023 | Plenary session (Chamber of representatives)
Full source
Sofie Merckx PVDA | PTB ⚙
We submit to vote our bill introducing the free consultation with the general physician. This does not require much explanation.
Going without money to the generalist, without worry, it has been 50 years that Medicine for the People (MPLP) practices it. We are proud of it. Nowadays, more and more doctors do so as part of the paying third. More and more people are working in medical houses and believe that health is a right.
But not everyone has access yet. There are still 260,000 families postponing care. I am not the only one who has noticed it. Several colleagues have talked about this in recent months, although this should not be the case.
In many countries around Belgium, going to the doctor without money is simply a reality. It is a right to have access to health. This bill has gone a long way. We first asked for opinions. In fact, this proposal was already filed before the Covid crisis, much more than two years ago.
We have received an opinion from INAMI and the Court of Auditors. I will return. In fact, it has a certain cost: 154 million euros. But the INAMI and the Court of Auditors are also very clear in giving a positive opinion, considering that if people can go to the doctor without the money barrier, then diseases will be treated faster and patients will fill less emergencies and second line. As the saying goes, “It is better to prevent than to cure.”
We submitted this bill to the State Council, which made some technical remarks to which we answered. Then the covid crisis occurred and the WHO and KCE report was published. Their study highlights that health care is not as accessible as one thinks and despite some advances, Belgium received bad points.
They pointed to the problem of accessibility in general medicine as well as for other front-line professions, such as physiotherapists and dentists. They also pointed out the fact that the third-party paying system is very complex in our country and they did not understand it. They advised us to abolish the complex system of the paying third party and make the first line fully accessible.
We then amended our bill to not only make the visit to a generalist possible without money but also to the dentist and the physiotherapist, for example, when hearings were organized on this bill, associations of patients, mutual associations, doctors, etc. They came to speak. Many supported it, but some also made known that there was not only a problem at the level of general medicine but that it was also the case at the level of the first line. That is why we amended this proposal.
I would like to briefly draw attention to one point. I address here in particular to the left parties and not to the right parties, for whom access to health care is not necessarily an objective to be achieved – which is normal since health is a trade. In any case, the Ecolo group has included in its program, ahead of the 2019 elections, that the free care of the general physician should be established. The PS also included in its program that it was necessary to make sure that the patient no longer had to withdraw money during a consultation with the general physician.
My colleagues, what are you waiting for? Today you can join the word with the actions by supporting our bill.