Health Insurance gave its agreement on Thursday February 8 for an increase in the price of consultations to 30 euros with general practitioners, but negotiations should continue during the first half of March.
A consultation with a general practitioner could soon increase to 30 euros. Health insurance gave its agreement on Thursday February 8. The 6 liberal doctors’ unions demanded this increase while asking for “developments to improve the health of the population”. They met at the National Health Insurance Fund to negotiate rates that should be in effect for at least 5 years. Negotiations are still ongoing and must continue “in the first half of March”, with a new plenary session, according to health insurance.
What are the rewards?
Health insurance is asking that these negotiations result in “an ambitious overhaul of flat-rate remuneration” with possible “entirely flat-rate” remuneration for doctors who wish it. Another counterpart requested by health insurance: an improvement “in terms of access to care” with increased on-call duty for private doctors “in the first part of the night”. On the other hand, she calls for “a very ambitious action program on the quality and relevance of care” to reduce health spending. The reason is the consumption of medicines, because France is the fourth country with the highest consumption of antibiotics in Europe, according to Public Health France, after Greece, Romania and Bulgaria. The government also wants better long-term monitoring of patients, in order to avoid a series of consultations with occasional patients.
Mixed reviews
Reactions from unions are mixed. “We have no timetable,” lamented Agnès Giannotti, boss of the MG France union. The union also demands that general practitioners be paid 60 euros for the longest consultations. For its part, the Avenir Spé-Le Bloc union believes through the voice of Patrick Gasser that “it’s dramatic, there is no envelope, or almost an envelope for specialized medicine”. “Today, we are not signing,” he said.
Negotiations failed in 2023, with a revaluation of consultations of 1.50 euros, while the prices had been the same since 2017. An amount which was then deemed insufficient by the doctors’ unions.