Structured psychotherapies are treatments for mental health disorders that are recommended by international good practice guidelines. Their positive impact on the costs to healthcare funding bodies has been widely demonstrated. Nevertheless, in France today, psychotherapies delivered by non-medical mental health providers in private practice settings are not reimbursed to patients by health cover systems. A financial evaluation of covering the cost of psychotherapies was performed using the methodology of the British programme Improving Access for Psychological Therapies (2005). The cost of a session was estimated at 41€, the reimbursement rate by the compulsory health insurance system at 70% and 60% for the care of individuals aged 18 to 75 presenting common, chronic and/or severe mental disorders. The yearly cost for the cover of psychotherapeutic care was 514 million Euros (between 308M and 347M€ for the compulsory systems) to treat 1.033 million individuals in France, or 2.3% of the population. In terms of the cost-benefit ratio, 1€ invested in psychotherapeutic treatment could, depending on patient profile, save from 1.14€ to 1.95€. France has the 14 300 professionals qualified to deliver the psychotherapies required to treat this population.
