The main unions of private doctors have been calling for a price increase for several months. Health Insurance opened the way, Thursday, February 8, to pricing consultations with general practitioners at 30 euros, while demanding in return “developments to improve the health of the population.”
In a press release, Health Insurance “confirms that it is ready to finance an increase in the general practitioner consultation to 30 euros and increase measures specific to each of the specialties”. However, these “will only be implemented if they are accompanied by other developments in favor of improving the health of the population” in the current negotiations, added Health Insurance.
The six unions representing private doctors met Thursday at the headquarters of the National Health Insurance Fund (CNAM) to negotiate prices for the next five years. These negotiations are expected to continue in the coming weeks, with Medicare announcing a new plenary session “in the first half of March.”
Counterparties in exchange for the tariff increase
The consultation at 30 euros – compared to 26.50 euros since November 2023 – is the minimum demand of the unions with regard to general practitioners. The government and Health Insurance had sent signals favorable to this increase in recent months, but had not revealed their cards.
Their proposal is therefore not without compensation. Health Insurance is therefore asking that the negotiations lead to an “ambitious overhaul of flat-rate remuneration”, with the possibility of “fully flat-rate” remuneration for doctors wishing it.
She also calls for “improvements in terms of access to care”, in particular a strengthening of private doctor duty “in the first part of the night”.
She also wants “a very ambitious action program on the quality and relevance of care”, a way of demanding more commitment from doctors to stem the inexorable growth in health spending.
Health Insurance particularly targets the consumption of medicines: France is the fourth country with the highest consumption of antibiotics in Europe, behind Greece, Romania and Bulgaria, according to figures from Public Health France.
Price negotiations with doctors failed last year. This failure led to the application of a provisional rate, increasing basic consultations by 1.50 euros, an amount considered insufficient by all doctors’ unions even though the rates had not changed since 2017.