A Senate fact-finding mission sought to measure the phenomenon of financialization in the various sectors of healthcare provision. It identified the determinants and assessed the consequences for the organization of healthcare provision in different regions, the control of health insurance expenditure and the working conditions of healthcare professionals.
The “shift” is already well underway in many sectors, says the report. This is particularly true of for-profit clinics, where four major groups account for almost half of the market in France. In ambulatory care, private medical biology is the “most financialized” sector, with six major groups accounting for 62% of sites in France in 2021.
The senators note the “poorly assessed” and “poorly controlled” effects of this financialization on the healthcare system and patients. The mission makes 18 recommendations, including the need to regulate it, through greater control of the activities of health centers and the issuing of authorizations for healthcare activities by regional health agencies (ARS). It also recommends the creation of an observatory on financialization. For the co-rapporteur, Senator Bernard Jomier, financialization threatens the fundamentals of the healthcare system, in terms of the organization of care, the independence of professionals and the allocation of resources and costs for users. While he does not encourage the exclusion of players who want to invest, he does want them to be subject “to the primacy of public health objectives, rather than those of financial profitability”.
