Unions and medical biology laboratories on Wednesday denounced a drain of at least 250 million euros on the financing of the branch in the Social Security budget, believing that these savings could lead to the closure of sites.
“Amalgamating (…) the Covid activity of the laboratories and their current activity will have deleterious consequences on innovation, the deployment of digital technology, employment, the supply of care” and the ability to respond to crisis situations health, warn the main unions and laboratories in a joint press release.
The Social Security financing bill provides for 250 million euros in savings made via “reductions in the prices of medical biology acts” unrelated to Covid-19, a measure justified by the “need to control expenditure particularly important” of the sector.
Between 2013 and 2020, spending on the profession increased by 3%, when the National Health Insurance Spending Objective (Ondam) “increased by 27.9%”, according to the press release.
However, if the laboratories were “ready to work on price regulation to participate in the control of health expenditure”, losing their envelope for routine procedures on the grounds of Covid activity “can only lead to a deterioration in load “and risk job cuts and closures of local laboratories, according to them.
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The country has 4,200 local laboratories, and medical biology has 50,000 direct and as many indirect jobs, recall the signatories of the press release.
During the Covid, “there were profits, the margin increased, and we were ready to negotiate. We even asked in July 2021 for a reduction in Covid rates from health insurance, which refused it, ”said François Blanchecotte, president of the Syndicat des biologists on France 2, on Tuesday.