Denouncing for a month the “puncture” of 250 million euros that the government intends to impose on them via the Social Security financing bill, the laboratories have stopped transmitting the results of their screening tests.
The dispute between biologists and the government on the Social Security budget turns into a showdown: since Thursday, the laboratories no longer feed the Covid test file (SI-DEP), a boycott “inadmissiblefor the executive.
After several warnings, biologists took action. Denouncing for a month the “punctureof 250 million euros that the government intends to impose on them via the Social Security financing bill, they have stopped transmitting the results of their RT-PCR screening tests to the national SI-DEP file. At the risk of breaking the thermometer of the epidemic.
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This decision “unacceptable“, reacted Gabriel Attal, Thursday on France info. The Minister of Public Accounts highlights the gains linked to the Covid for this sector which has garnered “7 billion euros more turnover thanks to tests paid for by Social Security“.
He “assume» as well as their «request an effort in the Social Security budget of 250 million euros in 2023“. A “effort” subject to interpretation: biologists see it as a “blind plane» which will be perpetuated in the following years. “An erroneous interpretation“, retorted Gabriel Attal and the Minister of Health, François Braun, in a letter sent Wednesday to the directors of laboratories, and which AFP obtained.
In this letter, the ministers judge “inadmissible” this “call for suspension of data transmission» and reaffirm «the necessary monitoring of the epidemic“. Adding count “on the sense of ethics» laboratory directors for «ensure continuity of access to care“, they believe that”if this mobilization was followed” that “would amount to taking patients hostage“But ignoring this official injunction, the laboratories have maintained their movement, in order to”send a messageto the government.
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Threat of strike
Lamenting the “end of inadmissibilityof the Minister of Public Accounts, the Alliance of Medical Biology (ABM), which brings together the unions and the main laboratory groups, continues to denounce a “plane stroke“which risks”structurally disrupt an entire sector recognized as exemplaryfor his role during the epidemic.
Rather than a “economy cure” for “resolve a situation that is only cyclical“, its members say to themselves “ready to work on price regulation to help control health expenditure“and add that they submitted Thursday morning to Health Insurance”a counter-proposalfor the next three years.
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Except that the National Health Insurance Fund (Cnam) is first waiting “that the representatives of the sector adopt a responsible attitude“. Its director Thomas Fatôme strongly condemned the boycott of the SI-DEP file, stating in a press release that “thus taking hostage the monitoring of the Covid-19 epidemic is unacceptable in view of the health context and public health issues“.
Stressing in passing that the already high profitability of the laboratories “has further increased“In favor of the health crisis, he adds”wish to continue the dialogue with biologists“, but asks them beforehand to “guarantee both the continuity of care and the fulfillment of their missions in the service of public healthBut some are already considering going further. The Independent Biologists, a network of more than 600 laboratories excluding large groups, thus threaten “to close our labs and go on strike if we can’t reach a reasonable agreement“.
And lay the blame on the government, which “without any consultation or desire to engage in a constructive dialogue“, their “bears the notorious consequences of its decisions“. The conflict seems set to last: the draft budget on which the government launched 49.3 on Wednesday evening maintains the measure as it is.
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