Foreign patients owe €120million

HOSPITALS in Paris are planning to ask foreign visitors to pay for planned treatment upfront - after building up €120million of unpaid healthcare bills.

Patients and health insurance funds in Algeria and Morocco owe the most to the French healthcare system, followed by Americans - but EU patients from Belgium and Italy are also high in the debt list.

Paris hospitals have seen a 10% increase in the number of foreigners being treated since 2010 - with many patients attracted to France by the high standards of healthcare, especially in areas such as cardiology, treatment of tumours and digestive surgery.

Hospital authority AP-HP wants to apply a 30% surcharge to treatment for foreign residents and require payment in advance.

Emergency care will still be open to all - and foreigners who are resident in France should be unaffected as they will have normal access to the French healthcare system.

The new rules are due to come into force in September. Exact details remain unclear, with a spokesman from France's national nursing union saying: "It's a theory, but in practice it's impossible to know in advance exactly how much a hospitalisation will cost."