Sunday, February 26 in the evening, MG France and Avenir Spé-Le Bloc, the two main unions of liberal doctors, among general practitioners and specialists, indicated that they had “unanimously” rejected the new consultation rates proposed by the Health insurance in return for a commitment to increase their business. The six representative doctors’ unions have until Tuesday, February 28 to decide for or against the new consultation fee schedule proposed by Health Insurance.
“There was 98% turnout and 100% said no to signing. A unanimous negative vote “which “must be likely to make politicians think,” said Agnès Giannotti, president of MG France, the largest GP union, at a press conference. Same result among the specialists of the Avenir Spé-Le Bloc union, meeting in general assembly on Sunday: “No signature, unanimously”, told AFP the president of Avenir Spé, Patrick Gasser. “We did what we could, it was a failure,” he added, but “the responsibility lies with others, in government and above.”
The Cnam (National Health Insurance Fund) proposal provides that all medical consultations would be increased by 1.50 euros. For general practitioners, this unconditional upgrade would bring the basic consultation to 26.50 euros, compared to 25 euros since 2017. Practitioners agreeing to make “territorial commitments” (taking more patients, participating in on-call duty, practicing in a medical desert …) would obtain a higher consultation rate, at 30 euros for example for general practitioners.
But among general practitioners, this question of the tariff was “marginal” in the outcome of the vote, assured Ms. Giannotti, explaining that practitioners mainly suffer from a “lack of recognition”. “To say that we have to commit means that we don’t and that is absolutely inaudible for the profession,” she added.
For the specialists, the counterparties required were simply “not admissible”, explained Mr. Gasser, comparing the global envelope of 1.5 billion euros advanced by the Cnam to the “billions injected into health establishments, public and private” since the Covid and the “Ségur de la santé”.
With this rejection of the two organizations weighing more than 30% each among generalists and specialists, the draft agreement supported by the government is about to fall through. Failing an unlikely alliance between at least two of the four remaining unions, the new rates will be set by an “arbiter” – in this case, a senior official appointed by the executive.
The Ministry of Health has planned to speak on the subject during a telephone briefing with journalists on Monday mid-morning.
