The two main unions of liberal doctors, among general practitioners and specialists, announced, Sunday evening February 26, their rejection ” unanimously “ new consultation rates proposed by the Health Insurance, in return for a commitment to increase their activity.
“There was 98% participation and 100% said no to signing. A unanimous negative vote” Who “must be of a nature to make politicians think”declared during a press conference Agnès Giannotti, the president of MG France (French Federation of general practitioners), the most important union of general practitioners.
Same result among specialists from the Union Syndicale Avenir Spé-Le Bloc, meeting in general assembly on Sunday: “No signature, unanimously”declared the president of Avenir Spé, Patrick Gasser. “We did what we could, it’s a failure”he added, but “the responsibility lies with others, in government and above”.
The proposal of the National Health Insurance Fund (CNAM) provides that all medical consultations would be revalued by 1.50 euros. For general practitioners, this unconditional increase would bring the basic consultation to 26.50 euros, against 25 euros since 2017. The six unions of representative doctors (CSMF, MG France, Avenir Spé, UFML, FMF and SML) have up to Tuesday evening to say whether or not they accept the new price list for consultations and other packages offered by Medicare for five years.
” Lack of recognition “
Practitioners agreeing to take “territorial commitments” (take more patients, participate in on-call duty, work in a medical desert, etc.) would obtain a higher consultation rate, at 30 euros for example for general practitioners. But among general practitioners, this question of tariffs has been “marginal” in the outcome of the vote, assured Mme Giannotti, who explains that practitioners mostly suffer from a ” lack of recognition “. “To say that we have to commit means that we don’t do it and that is absolutely inaudible for the profession”she added.
For specialists, the counterparties required were simply not “not eligible”explained Mr. Gasser, comparing the overall envelope of 1.5 billion euros put forward by the CNAM to the “billions injected into health establishments, public and private”since the Covid-19 and the Ségur de la santé.
With this rejection of the two organizations which weigh more than 30% each among generalists and specialists, the draft agreement supported by the government is about to fall through. In the absence of an improbable alliance between at least two of the four remaining unions, the new tariffs will be set by a “referee” – in this case a senior civil servant appointed by the executive.