From 1um November the amount for the basic consultation with the family doctor will be increased from 25 euros to 26.50 euros. In specialist practices, the price increases by 1.50 euros to 31.50 euros for the coordinated consultation – i.e. the referral of a patient to a specialist by the treating doctor – and the follow-up consultation. This change is likely to have a limited impact on patients: although they will be charged these increases, which affect a certain number of procedures, the remaining costs after reimbursements from health insurance and supplementary health insurance will remain unchanged.
These new prices result from the arbitration agreement that the state reached in the spring after traditional negotiations between the health insurance company and the private doctors’ unions failed. They only form one “Stage”Health insurance director Thomas Fatôme has already promised this, while the doctors’ unions have demanded at least an unconditional increase to 30 euros for consultations with the family doctor. The same commitment also applies on the part of the Minister of Health Aurélien Rousseau, who on Tuesday October 17th opened new conventional discussions by sending his framework letter to the actors. According to Medicare, negotiations should officially begin in mid-November.
Liberal doctors, including twelve unions and professional associations that called for the strike on October 13, welcomed this resumption and ” exposed ” their movement after just a few days. But the change to 26.50 euros at 1um November is always a sensitive date; this sum of 1.50 euros remains perceived “humiliation”we emphasize in the union ranks.
“Negotiations will resume”
“The price will make people frightened at every consultation, psychologically the doctors will be very angry”says Agnès Giannotti, head of MG France, the largest union of general practitioners. This amount has not changed since 2017, the doctors remind. The price, which was set at 20 euros until 2005, gradually increased to 23 euros in 2010 and seven years later to the previous 25 euros. “Fortunately, negotiations are resuming, but we need results very quickly, we cannot wait a year.”continues the trade unionist and calls on the minister to repeal the economic stabilizers regulation, i.e.
You still have 50% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.
