Couverture maladie universelle

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The CMU (Couverture maladie universelle, Universal health care coverage) is a French social welfare program concerning public health. It was voted by Lionel Jospin's gauche plurielle government (27 July 1999 law), at the initiative of the minister Martine Aubry. The CMU has been implemented since January 2000.

It offers the possibility to all people who legally reside in France for more than three months to have health expenses reimbursed by the Social security. Furthermore, for people with low revenues, the CMU also offers a complementary health protection of 100%, which adds itself to the standard Social Security (instead of having to pay additional private insurances). Illegal aliens may benefit from the Aide médicale d'Etat (AME, State medical aid).

A 2006 investigation by the NGO Médecins du monde (Doctors of the World) showed that 10% of French physicians illegally refused to treat patients covered by the CMU, while 40% refused to treat AME patients ^[1].

One of the main argument made by proponents of CMU and of the State medical aid programs is that, beyond humanitarian concerns, it is a matter of public health to avoid having certain categories of the population not well treated, thus preventing the development of epidemics. Furthermore, proponents point out that it is cheaper to treat patients at the beginning of health problems than when these ones get worse.