Market empowerment of the patient: the French experience

Through analysis of the French experience, this article explores the way economic policy has sought to encourage active, well-informed patients by giving them market power. The new status of the patient as consumer is based on two foundations: the endeavour to build a healthcare market and the activation of demand-based policies. The keystone of this new system is a conception of the market as a process constructed by economic policy. Recent measures such as the standardization of care and the introduction of incentives to respect a treatment pathway then constitute effective levers to establish a free-market rationale.