France's health minister said on Saturday French patients might have to pay more towards their medical costs, just a day after the assembly adopted the government's controversial health reforms.
Philippe Douste-Blazy's comments came after parliament gave final approval on Friday to a reform bill, which includes a one-euro charge for seeing a doctor and a rise in welfare levies.
"This reform is a last chance to save a care system 'a la francaise'," Douste-Blazy said in an interview with Sunday's Le Journal du Dimanche, made available ahead of publication.
"If, in the end, behaviours do not change, we will without doubt be forced to put into place (a system of) deductibles according to income," he said.
The conservative government of Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin, struggling to bring its public deficit below the European Union's limit of three percent of gross domestic product, is under pressure to cut health care costs.
Under the French system, patients pay for treatment and are reimbursed by statutory health insurance funds depending on the doctor and the type of treatment selected.
Douste-Blazy has vowed to crack down on abuses of the system such as fraudulent sick leave, and the reform seeks to encourage patients to use general practitioners rather than heading straight for expensive specialists as is often the case now.
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