The consumer defense association UFC-Que Choisir denounces a “flight of price of care”, in a survey published on February 22, 2024. Indeed, according to figures revealed by UFC-Que Choisir, which analyzed the prices of doctors in eight liberal specialties, 52.2% of specialist doctors apply fee overruns in 2021, compared to 45.8% in 2016, an increase of +6.4 points. As a reminder, an excess fee is an amount higher than the conventional rates set by Health Insurance. These figures are published in the midst of renegotiation of the pricing agreement between private doctors and Health Insurance.
Fee overruns: 52.2% of private specialist doctors would practice them
In its investigation, the consumer defense association explains having collected and analyzed Social Security data on the prices applied by eight liberal professions, “it provides a precise overview of the proportion of doctors not respecting the basic rate and the level of excess fees charged”, can we read.
But this increase does not affect professions in the same way depending on specialty and location. “The fees charged for a consultation are up to 2.5 times more expensive from one department to another”, details the association. More precisely, the authors emphasize that with 71.4%, the gynecologists are those who resort to overcharging the most, “the average price of a consultation with the gynecologist is 50.6 euros, and even reaches 80.5 euros in Paris, compared to an enforceable price of 30 euros”, illustrates the UFC-Que Choisir.
Specialized doctors: the highest prices would be in Île-de-France or in the departments of large metropolises
Other relevant specialists, ophthalmologists whose average excess in France is 13.80 euros above the price of Social Security and whose excess in the most expensive department amounts to 35.5 euros. We can also cite the dermatologists, whose average excess in France reaches 11.7 euros and which amounts to 40.3 euros in the most expensive department. The complete list and details can be found on the UFC-Que Choisir website.
As stated by UFC-Que Choisir, “THE areas with the highest rates tend to be Île-de-France (in particular Paris and Hauts-de-Seine), as well as the departments southern coastlinesand others comprising large metropolisesthat is to say departments where the medical demographics are relatively less unfavorable”.
This increase in prices is not without consequences for patients. According to an exclusive survey by the UFC-Que Choisir Consumer Observatory published last November and conducted on a panel of 1,004 people, 38% of respondents said they were giving up health care for financial reasons even though they consider themselves to be in poor health.
“It’s not about living like pashas”, the Union of Gynecologists and Obstetricians defends itself
Interrogates by The Doctor’s DailyDr Bertrand de Rochambeau, president of Syngof, (the Union of Gynecologists and Obstetricians of France), defends himself: “Despite inflation and the rising energy costs, we must continue to pay our secretaries, our operating aids, our rents as well as insure our offices. If gynecologists have resorted more to excesses since 2021, it is not to live like pashas but to continue to do quality work. At this point, we cannot lower our costs. Optam is at the heart of the solution and we will have to arrive at acceptable prices within the framework of conventional negotiations”.
Still, the UFC-Que Choisir calls for certain measures such as making possible increases in basic Social Security rates conditional on an effective reduction in out-of-pocket costs for users or even the closure of the access to sector 2 (fee-free) outside OPTAM for new arrivals.
Fee overruns: alarming figures and widening gaps depending on specialties and departments #MyHealthNwaitMore pic.twitter.com/lkkQ5MNJuh
— UFC-Que Choisir (@UFCquechoisir) February 22, 2024
Sources:
- Fee overruns – Stop two-tier specialized medicine – UFC-QUE CHOISIR
- Fee overruns: UFC-Que Choisir criticizes eight specialties, unions respond- Le Quotidien du Médecin