REVOLUTIONARY values of liberty, equality and fraternity, appear to only apply to French citizens aged four to 69 years, when it comes to medicines pricing.
While Australian pensioners can access prescription medicines listed on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme for $6.80 per script, rather than the $42.50 general co-payment, their French peers are being charged a $2.45 "fee due to the age of the patient" on top of what younger people pay for the same scripts.
The fee, which was introduced by French health authority, l'Assurance maladie, in 2019, has been described as a "form of discrimination" by an 88-year-old woman from Avranches in Normandy, who recently spotted the charge listed on an itemised receipt.
The woman, identified as Marie, said the additional charge was a symptom of France treating elderly people like children.
"When you get older, we treat people here as if they're going back to childhood," she said.
"It's mentally hurtful, and the injustice eats away at me a bit.
"It suggests that I'm 'a little old lady who can't manage'.
"It makes you feel inferior."
L'Assurance maladie, told The Connexion, that the fee was not a discriminatory tax, "but a fee paid to the pharmacist for the advice and support they provide when dispensing medicines".
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