Abstract
This article analyses how the modern public hospital handles poverty. To do so it goes from the example of the hospital-based Departments for access to healthcare (Permanences d’accès aux soins de santé - PASS), that is specialized in taking care of patients experiencing difficulties to access healthcare in the French healthcare system. The article relies on an empirical study achieved as part of a PhD work in sociology. The study combines participant observations and interviews (n=49) which have been conducted in 16 different PASS. On a theoretical level, the paper mirrors the work on the metamorphosis of the social question and a biopolitics perspective inspired by Foucault. In this perspective the way the public hospital takes care of individuals situated at the margin of the healthcare system is thought as entering in the areas of social regulation, protection of the public health or realization of human right. In the case of PASS, the article shows the construction of a biopolicy of migration that is a cobbling together of citizenship, economic policies, public health and access to healthcare. The form of power is characterized by a government from the bottom which is realized by street-level healthcare professionals during interaction with the patients and based on a moral economy depicting representations of what is good and bad for the society.
Keywords:
Access to Healthcare; Public Hospital; Social Question; Biopolitics; Migration