Posted on February 17, 2021
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The Court of Auditors recommends in a new report the reimbursement of liberal psychologists by health insurance. It is the attending physician who will act as a “filter”. This measure will relieve congestion in medico-psychological centers and could respond to the psychological distress that many French people are experiencing today due to the pandemic.
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It is a huge cost for the most modest. The price of a session with the psychologist varies on average between 50 and 90 euros without being reimbursed by Social Security. However, for the Court of Auditors, it is urgent to review the situation. In a report published on February 16, financial magistrates urge the government to “generalize as soon as possible” reimbursement of liberal psychologists by health insurance. Four departments are already testing this possibility.
This measure, if it is generalized, should cost 85 million euros per year, according to the Court of Auditors. Above all, it will help relieve congestion in the medical-psychological centers (CMP) so that they can treat the most serious pathologies. “It is thanks to the implementation of proven therapeutic solutions at moderate cost that we will avoid abusing and often ineffective recourse to specialized, more expensive care”, explains the Court of Auditors.
The third wave of mental health
Concretely, she proposes to set up a filter: the attending physician. The latter, in the first line, will make it possible to orient the patient either towards the CMP for priority groups, or towards the care of a psychologist. The doctor will thus have to grade the psychological state of the patient. The deterioration of mental health has been a priority issue since the Covid-19 pandemic. The government was also concerned last November about the risk of “third wave”, that of the “Mental Health”.
From the end of the year, the director general of health, Jérôme Salomon, observed a “significant increase in depressive states. The number of people affected doubled between the end of September and the beginning of November”, he noted. “This epidemic is stressful, anxiety-provoking, and can generate psychological suffering for many of us”, he explained.
“In this crisis, it is not just respiratory resuscitation, we need to be resuscitated morally and psychologically. We are in a state of psychological death because of the duration of this pandemic and the lack of prospects”, observes in Elle, Ariane Calvo, psychologist and author of “Little guide to psychological survival in times of health crisis”. For her, the reimbursement of psychologists will prevent “the depression sets in”.
Marina Fabre, @fabre_marina with AFP
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