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”, she indicated in a press release.
However, these “will only be implemented if they are accompanied by other developments” in the current negotiations, she added. The six unions representing private doctors have been meeting since the beginning of the afternoon at the headquarters of the National Health Insurance Fund (Cnam) to negotiate prices for the next five years.
Health Insurance wants an “ambitious overhaul of flat-rate remuneration”
These negotiations must continue in the coming weeks, with Health Insurance announcing a new plenary session “in the first half of March”. The consultation at 30 euros – compared to 26.50 euros currently – 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 the price of consultations in recent months, but had not revealed their cards. The proposal is not, however, 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.
Health Insurance targets medication consumption
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 deemed insufficient by all doctors’ unions even though the rates had not changed since 2017.