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This article discusses the links between the holding of the États généraux de la santé (EGS) (National Consultations on Health) between March 1998 and December 1999 and the “Droits des malades” (Patients’ Rights) law of March 4, 2002, the founding element of the concept of health democracy. It analyzes the social and political context that determined the emergence of these national consultations, the methodologies envisaged and the logistics deployed for the organization of the debates, the conditions of their unfolding in time and within France’s different regions, their results, and their outcome in the form of Lionel Jospin’s speech of June 30, 1999 announcing a law on patients’ rights. It then looks at the process of drafting this law. Its originality lies in the fact that it was co-constructed and co-written with representatives of associations, and that its content faithfully reflects the results of the EGS for all the actors concerned. Drawing on these observations as well as aspects relating to the citizens’ conference on climate, the article concludes with a reflection on the conditions required for non-elective and/or participatory representative mechanisms to structure new democratic practices in the health field, and even beyond.