Prices for consultations: doctors and health insurance resume negotiations this Wednesday
They meet again eight months after the failure of a first attempt. The six representative unions of liberal doctors will meet again this Wednesday afternoon with Health Insurance representatives for new negotiations, eight months after the failure of a first attempt.
The failure of these discussions at the end of February led to the definition of new prices by an “arbitrator” : an increase of 1.50 euros in the basic consultation, which came into force on November 1st. For a general practitioner, the consultation was increased to 26.50 euros on November 1, whereas it had been 25 euros since 2017.
The government itself recognizes that this revaluation is insufficient, but before freeing up more resources, he wants to obtain commitments from doctors on objectives such as the fight against medical desertification or the control of expenses (medications, sick leave, etc.).
“A long and difficult discussion”
“It’s going to be a discussion that will be long and difficult because if we increase the reimbursed rate, in return we need commitments from doctors,” summarized the Minister of Health, Aurélien Rousseau, on Sud Radio on Tuesday.
In any case, doctors’ unions remain very mobilized for the “attractiveness” of their professionwhile private medicine and its constraints – particularly timetabled and administrative – seem less attractive to young doctors today.
The six representative unions are MG France, CSMF, FMF and UFML-S for generalists, and Avenir Spé-Le Bloc, CSMF, SML and UFML-S for specialists. The most moderate last year demanded a consultation at 30 euros for general practitioners, but others asked for 50 euros.
The government and Health Insurance had indeed proposed an increase to 30 euros, but only for doctors agreeing to sign a “territorial commitment contract” against medical desertification, an idea which has now been abandoned.
A drop in the number of liberal doctors
Health Insurance had put 1.5 billion euros on the table to finance these measures. This package has only been partially used since then, to finance the revaluation effective on November 1st. According to the Retirement Fund for Liberal Doctors (CARMF), the net income (BNC – non-commercial profits) of independent doctors fell by almost 4% in 2022.
“Taking into account 2022 inflation (5.22%), the loss of purchasing power is 8.66%,” she said. According to the Order of Physicians, the number of doctors with exclusively liberal status has fallen by 11.8% since 2010, while the number of salaried doctors increased by 13.4% over the same period. Around 48.2% of doctors today are salaried, compared to 41.5% of exclusively self-employed.
