European health care systems are facing diverse challenges. In health policy, strong primary care is seen as key to deal with these challenges. European countries differ in how strong their primary care systems are. Two groups of traditionally weak primary care systems are distinguished. First a...

BACKGROUND: In 2005, the French Government implemented a new way of financing high-cost drugs for hospitals in order to promote innovation. Such drugs are gathered on a positive list, established by the Ministry of Health, with a reimbursement price cap. Hospitals still negotiate with...

Background To reach the French market, a new drug requires a marketing authorization (MA) and price and reimbursement agreements. These hurdles could delay access to new and promising drugs. Since 1992, French law authorizes the use of unlicensed drugs on an exceptional and temporary basis...

Although the concept of healthcare renunciation is regularly employed in health surveys and increasingly called into the French public debate, it has never been subject to methodological questioning to analyse the term’s underlying significations. If health surveys frequently refer to...

We study the psycho-social determinants of self-assessed health in order to explain social inequalities in health in France.We use a unique general population survey to assess the respective impact on self-assessed health status of subjective perceptions of social capital, social support, and...

Objectives Since 2006 France experiences an innovative version of Gate-keeping which aims at regulating access to outpatient specialist care. We describe the reform's initial objectives, the political pathway which lead to the implementation of a reshaped reform and discuss the first outcomes...

La France, bien que pourvue d’un système de protection sociale à vocation universelle, connaît des inégalités sociales dans l’accès et l’utilisation des services de santé. L’analyse des déterminants du renoncement aux soins pour raisons financières apporte un nouvel éclairage...

Background Biosimilars are copies of biological reference medicines. Unlike generics (copies of chemical molecules), biologics are complex, expensive and complicated to produce. The knowledge of the factors affecting the competition following patent expiry for biologics remains limited....