The rates proposed by Medicare under the new convention have prompted dental surgeons to go on strike.
They have a grudge against the government, whose health law they do not digest. Liberal dentists are in the streets this Friday to proclaim their anger. In question: the cap on the prices of prostheses that the Minister of Health wishes to impose on them.
The profession is in fact opposed to a conventional rider which must revalue a certain number of basic procedures (scaling, cavities, etc.) in return for a cap on procedures related to prostheses.
A designated arbitrator
With this measure, Marisol Touraine hopes to stop giving up care because of the excessively high costs of prostheses. In France, one in five people say they give up dental treatment because of its price – this is the sector in which people give up the most care, along with optics.
With the Health Insurance, negotiations have stalled for several months. On January 26, the departmental representatives of the National Confederation of Dental Trade Unions (CNSD), the second trade union in the profession, voted 99.88% against the signing of the amendment. They have thus followed in the footsteps of the FSDL, the first union. The Health Insurance proposed an envelope of 806 million euros over four years. The unions demanded 2.5 billion.
To get out of this impasse, an arbitrator has been appointed. He must put new proposals on the table, which promise to be less advantageous for professionals. Dentists see this designation as a “blackmail” put in place by the minister to urge professionals to sign the text.
“The beginning of the dispute”
“March 3, 2017 will mark the beginning of a period of protest against the system that liberal dental surgeons now unanimously refuse to endorse and that they will denounce in the eyes of the population”, warned the union rally in a press release published on 6 February.
On January 27, between 3,000 and 5,000 dental surgeon students had already demonstrated in Paris. A demonstration took place in the capital on Friday but the strike reached all of France. One in two practices had to close.
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