Timeline of healthcare in France
This is a timeline of healthcare in France. Major events such as policies and organizations are described.
Big picture
Year/period |
Key developments |
|---|---|
Middle Ages |
Southern France is one of the leading medical centers in Europe. The University of Montpellier is founded and becomes prominent. |
1770s–1850s |
Paris becomes a world center of medical research and teaching. The "Paris School" emphasizes that teaching and research should be based in large hospitals and promotes the professionalization of the medical profession and the emphasis on sanitation and public health. |
1871–1914 |
The French Third Republic follows behind Bismarckian Germany, as well as Great Britain, in developing the welfare state including public health, accident and old-age insurance. |
1928–2000 |
From its foundation, the French national health insurance progresses in incremental stages, with big extensions in 1945, 1961, 1966, 1978, and finally in 2000, achieving universal coverage. |
1945 onwards |
France develops a universal healthcare system. |
Present |
Today, the French healthcare system is one of universal healthcare largely financed by government national health insurance and is regarded among the best in the world. In the last years, there has been an increase in the rate of obesity among the French due mostly to the replacement in eating habits of traditional healthy French cuisine by junk food. |
Timeline
Year/period |
Type of event |
Event |
Location |
|---|---|---|---|
1289 |
Organization |
The University of Montpellier is founded. Its medical school becomes prominent and famous for arguing in the fourteenth century that the Black Death is caused by a miasma entering the opening of the body's pores, citing theories developed by Galen. Doctors educated at Montpellier advocate against bathing because they claim bathing opens the body's pores, making one more susceptible to the bubonic plague. |
Montpellier |
1443 |
Organization |
Hospices de Beaune is founded as a hospital for the poor. |
Beaune |
1602 |
Organization |
Hôpital de la Charité is founded. |
Paris |
1633 |
Organization |
Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul is founded as a society of young women who share their dedication of helping the poor and the sick. |
|
1645 |
Organization |
Charenton is founded as a lunatic asylum. |
Saint-Maurice, Val-de-Marne |
1656 |
Organization |
Bicêtre Hospital is established. |
Paris |
1752 |
Organization |
The Hôpital-Général de Douai is founded. |
Douai |
1761 |
Organization |
Hôtel-Dieu of Carpentras hospital is established. |
Vaucluse |
1793 |
Organization |
Coignard House is founded as a prison hospital. |
Paris |
1796 |
Organization |
Val-de-Grâce military hospital is founded. |
Paris |
1858 |
Organization |
Bégin Military Teaching Hospital is founded. |
Paris |
1864 |
Organization |
The French Red Cross (Croix-Rouge française) is founded as the national Red Cross Society in France. |
Paris |
1887 |
Organization |
The Pasteur Institute (Institut Pasteur) is founded as a non-profit private foundation dedicated to the study of biology, micro-organisms, diseases, and vaccines. It is one of the world's most prestigious and renown. Over the years, it has been responsible for breakthrough discoveries that have enabled medical science to control such virulent diseases as diphtheria, tetanus, tuberculosis, poliomyelitis, influenza, yellow fever, and plague. |
Headquarters in Paris. Serves worldwide. |
1897 |
Organization |
The Institut Biologique Mérieux (Mérieux Biological Institute) is founded as a health organization. |
|
1906 |
Organization |
The American Hospital of Paris is founded. |
Neuilly-sur-Seine |
1913 |
Organization |
Hôpital Paul-Brousse is established. |
Villejuif |
1915 |
Organization |
Hôpital Temporaire d'Arc-en-Barrois is founded as an emergency evacuation hospital during World War I. It is organized and staffed by British volunteers and served French soldiers. |
Haute-Marne |
1915 |
Organization |
The Scottish Women's Hospital at Royaumont is established. |
Val-d'Oise |
1920 |
Organization |
Curie Foundation is established. The following year, it is recognized as an institution of public interest. |
Paris |
1926 |
Organization |
Institut Gustave Roussy is founded. It is considered a world-leading cancer-research institute. It is a center for patient care, research and teaching, and patients with all types of cancer can be treated. |
Villejuif |
1928 |
Policy |
France launches a national health insurance. It covers salaried workers in industry and commerce whose wages are under a low ceiling. |
|
1936 |
Organization |
Raymond Poincaré University Hospital is founded. |
Garches |
1944 |
Occupied France. German authorities warn French doctors not to treat wounded Resistance members. |
||
1945 |
Policy |
A public health insurance program is established. The French national health insurance is extended to all industrial and commercial workers and their families, irrespective of wage levels. |
|
1961 |
Policy |
The national health insurance covers farmers and agricultural workers. |
|
1964 |
Organization |
The Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale (Inserm) is established as the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research. It is the only public research institution solely focused on human health and medical research in France. |
Paris |
1966 |
Policy |
Independent professionals are brought into the national health insurance. |
|
1968 |
Organization |
MEDICA is founded as a private health group specialized in the exploitation of global care facilities for dependent persons. |
Issy-les-Moulineaux (headquarters). Serves in France and Italy |
1970 |
Organization |
The Institut du Radium and the Curie Foundation merge to form Institut Curie, with its three missions of research, teaching, and treating cancer. |
Paris |
1973 |
Organization |
Droits des Non-Fumeurs is founded as a non-governmental organization in order to protect the rights of non-smokers in France. |
|
1974 |
Policy |
New law proclaims that national health insurance should be universal. |
|
1976 |
Policy |
Universal healthcare budget adjustment. Coverage of ambulance costs is reduced. |
|
1976 |
Organization |
The Centre d’Immunologie de Marseille-Luminy (CIML) is founded as an immunology center. The CIML addresses all areas of contemporary immunology. |
Marseille |
1977 |
Policy |
Universal healthcare budget adjustment. Coverage of some medications is reduced. Some hospital beds are closed. |
|
1982 |
Policy |
Universal healthcare budget adjustment. Patients must pay a "moderating fee" of 20 francs (3 euros) out of pocket when they are hospitalized. |
|
1983 |
Organization |
Jean Minjoz Hospital is established. |
Besançon |
1983 |
Discovery |
Team led by French researchers Luc Montagnier, Jean-Claude Chermann and Françoise Barré-Sinoussi discover AIDS viruses, HIV1 and HIV2 at Pasteur Institute. |
Paris |
1984 |
Organization |
AIDES is founded as a non profit organization. It is dedicated to fighting HIV/AIDS and defending the rights of people and communities affected by this disease. |
|
1984 |
Organization |
Réseau Sentinelles is founded as a network of general practitioners, working throughout the metropolitan regions of France. Its goal is to provide clinical surveillance for 14 health indicators. |
|
1985 |
Policy |
Universal healthcare budget adjustment. Coverage of some paramedical procedures is reduced. |
|
1985 |
Organization |
Pharmaciens Sans Frontières Comité International (PSFCI) is founded. It is the largest humanitarian association in the world specialized in the pharmaceutical sector. Founded and based in France, it has since evolved into an international organization. |
|
1985 |
Discovery |
Team led by Pierre Tiollais develops hepatitis B vaccine at Pasteur Institute. It is the first human vaccine obtained by genetic engineering from animal cells. |
Paris |
1986 |
Policy |
Universal healthcare budget adjustment. Healthcare payroll taxes is increased. |
|
1987 |
Policy |
Letters sent to the national health insurance must be stamped. |
|
1987 |
Organization |
The Faculté Libre de Médecines Naturelles et d'Ethnomédecine (FLMNE) is founded as a professional training organization. |
Paris |
1987 |
Organization |
The Institute of Environmental Medicine (IEM) is founded. It is dedicated to neuroscience research and consulting. |
|
1988 |
Policy |
Special tax on medication advertising is created to help fund healthcare. |
|
1989 |
Organization |
The French National AIDS Council (Conseil national du sida) is founded as an advisory body with aims at offering its views on the problems faced by society as a result of AIDS and making useful suggestions to the government. |
|
1990 |
Organization |
Sol En Si (Solidarité Enfants Sida, translated as Solidarity Children AIDS) is founded as a charity organization for helping children suffering from AIDS and their families. |
|
1990 |
Policy |
Contribution Sociale Généralisée (CSG) is introduced as new tax levied on all types of income to help fund healthcare. |
|
1991 |
Policy |
Supplementary income tax (5.5% of wages and all other earnings) raised specifically for the national health insurance, is introduced to make healthcare financing more progressive and to increase NHI revenues by enlarging the tax base. |
|
1992 |
Organization |
CRNHs is founded as a human nutrition clinical research center. CRNHs develops research programs in nutrition within the framework of national, European and international research programs, working with industry partners and researchers worldwide. |
Auvergne |
1998 |
Development |
The Carte Vitale is introduced as the health insurance card of the national healthcare system in France. It allows a direct settlement with the medical arm of the social insurance system. |
|
1998 |
Organization |
The Institut de veille sanitaire is established as a public establishment of the health minister. Its mission is to survey the public health and, if required (for example in the case of an epidemics), to alert the administration, health specialists and the whole of the population. |
|
1999 |
Policy |
New tax is levied on [...] makers when their revenue exceeds a pre-defined level. |
|
2000 |
Policy |
Doctors are required to explain to the national health insurance why they granted a worker sick leave. |
|
2000 |
Policy |
The Couverture maladie universelle (CMU; Universal healthcare coverage) is launched as a public health program. It reimburses medical expenses through social security to all those legally resident in France for more than three months. For people on low incomes, the CMU also offers complementary health coverage of 100%, which is added to standard Social Security payments. Illegal aliens are entitled to healthcare via the Aide médicale d'Etat (AME, State medical aid). This way, France covers the remaining 1% of its population that is uninsured and offers supplementary coverage to 8% of its population below an income ceiling. |
|
2000 |
Report |
The French healthcare system is ranked best in the world by the World Health Organization. |
|
2002 |
Organization |
Medtech is founded as a robotic surgery company. |
Montpellier |
2004 |
Organization |
The Louis Bonduelle Foundation is established. It acts internationally with the aim of changing eating habits in a sustainable manner, by providing everyone with the means of bringing vegetables into their daily life. |
Serves in France, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands and Canada. |
2005 |
Policy |
The national health insurance deducts 1 euro off doctor consultation fees before it starts calculating how much it must reimburse patients. |
|
2005 |
Policy |
Reform puts in place a process of coordinated care. The patient first visits his/her médecin traitant (general practitioner). This physician is previously registered at the caisse d´assurance sociale as the one in charge of the coordination of care for the patient. In case the physician or his substitute is unavailable, the patient can consult another physician and inform his/her caisse d´assurance. The patient is free to change to another general practitioner but has to report the change. |
|
2006 |
Organization |
Cancer Campus is launched as a research and campus in oncology. It is devoted to help to fight cancer. |
Villejuif |
2006 |
Organization |
Axess Vision Technology is founded as a manufacturer of medical devices, mainly endoscopes. |
Tours |
2007 |
Organization |
Association Grégory Lemarchal is founded. The organization is dedicated to improving the lives of cystic fibrosis sufferers and their families by providing information, funding research, and increasing public awareness of cystic fibrosis. |
|
2008 |
Organization |
Santé Environnement France is founded as a non-governmental health and environmental organization. It works on several critical topics: air quality, climate change, biodiversity, electromagnetic waves, nutrition, gardening, sport, etc. |
|
2008 |
Program |
Bill HPST (Hospital, patients, health, territories) is launched as the first stage of the Hospital 2012 Plan, launched by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, which aims at revamping of the French healthcare system. The bill aims at guarantee a better and equal access to care for all French people, whatever their geographic location. |
|
2011 |
Organization |
The Electrophysiology and Heart Modeling Institute (Institut de Rythmologie et Modélisation Cardiaque) (LIRYC) is founded as a university hospital institution created as part of the investments in a program to boost medical research and innovation. |
Pessac |
2011 |
Organization |
The Bibliothèque interuniversitaire de santé (BIU Santé) is founded as a medical library. It offers collections in medicine, dentistry, pharmacy and related sciences. |
|
2016 |
Policy |
New universal healthcare insurance system known as Protection Maladie Universelle (PUMA) is launched and replaces the old health insurance scheme Couverture Maladie Universelle (CMU). It grants all residents in France – including foreigners – easier access to health services. Individuals who are not covered by the PUMA or might want to increase their health coverage must apply private health insurance while living in France. |
|
2016 |
Report |
Life expectancy in France is estimated at 81.68 years, being ranked 14th out of 228 political subdivisions. |
|
See also
- Health care in France
- Timeline of healthcare in Italy
- Timeline of healthcare in Germany