Unemployed Adults Forgoing Healthcare in France

In 2016, almost 1 in 3 unemployed people in France reported having forgone healthcare for financial reasons in the 12 previous months, a proportion twice as high as that observed in the working population. Drawing on data from the 2016 Health Barometer, this article analyses the factors behind this forgoing of care. A comparison between unemployed and employed people shows that while forgoing healthcare among unemployed people is partly linked to their economic and social characteristics, being unemployed itself also has an effect. Moreover, the sociodemographic inequalities in forgoing healthcare observed among employed people are smaller among the unemployed population. Last, for unemployed people, having complementary health insurance remains key to making full use of healthcare services.