Dentists are protesting again against the new price list which caps the prices of prostheses. A rally is scheduled for September 14.
The holidays did not dampen their anger. Dentists are mobilizing again against the new tariff agreement, decided under the Holland era. The “Liberal Dentists Coordination Unit”, which brings together 15,600 dental surgeons in 78 departments, calls on professionals to demonstrate on September 14 in front of the Health Insurance Funds. It is through this movement to put pressure on the new government.
Dentists are protesting against the new price list, which provides for a cap on the price of prostheses. In return, current care will be reassessed upwards. From January 1, 2018, the price of a ceramic-metal crown will no longer be able to exceed 550 euros, and treatment for a cavity will cost 67 euros instead of 41 currently. Tariffs that will be evaluated again in 2020.
The agreement postponed for one year
The development is supposed to strengthen access to dental prostheses for patients who forego them due to lack of budget by reducing their out-of-pocket expenses. The authorities also wanted to give a boost to prevention by encouraging practitioners to provide basic care.
But dentists don’t understand it that way. They denounce a race to the bottom in the quality of services: by capping prices, Health Insurance would encourage them to use lower quality products. They also point out that without the substantial income linked to the fitting of prostheses, they would no longer be able to amortize the costs of their equipment.
“Agnès Buzyn was keen to renew with our professional representatives a dialogue that had been broken off for more than 5 years, in order to once again establish a climate of confidence”, write the signatories of a press release from the cell. The minister announced the one-year postponement of the entry into force of the new tariff schedule (in January 2019) and the resumption of conventional negotiations on September 15, the press release said.
Prostheses for everyone in 2022?
On July 18, the minister sent a “framing letter” to Nicolas Revel, director general of UNCAM (National Union of Health Insurance Funds), we can still read. She stresses the need to strengthen prevention in the area of oral health. She also evokes the commitment of Emmanuel Macron, who promised during the presidential campaign to offer all French people by 2022 access to offers without any remaining charge for dental prostheses.
“We are more reserved on this point, write the protesters. This gift for the French could turn out to be poisoned if it implies an increase in compulsory and additional insurance contributions as well as compromises on the quality of prostheses ”.
In addition, dentists point out that dental prostheses are “invasive and mutilating” therapies which should only be administered as a last resort. A “regrettable paradox could therefore arise from this political choice: we can fear a health disaster for our fellow citizens with the amplification of low-cost prosthesis acts (zero charge), to the detriment of acts of preservation of dental tissue”.
The press release ends with a threatening tone. In the absence of agreement with the profession, “we could consider differently the merits of our agreement with UNCAM”. No, the holidays have not appeased any anger and the return to school promises to be stormy.
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