Charged by the Ministry of Health, she was to give her opinion at the end of February “as to the merits of the conditions of coverage and reimbursement of homeopathic medicines”. The High Authority for Health (HAS) announced on Wednesday December 5 that it would not finally issue its advisory opinion until the spring, reveals South West. It highlights the extent of the evaluation work to be done. “ The drug evaluation service tries to do this with the greatest rigor and the greatest possible openness, so as not to miss out on elements that it could be accused of not taking into account.justifies the independent public authority.
Homeopathy divides among health professionals. Last March, 124 of them had even published a column in Le Figaro against alternative medicine, especially against this practice of administering highly diluted substances. They felt that “the community does not have to support homeopathy”. Today, some drugs are indeed reimbursed up to 30% by the Health Insurance. And this, while their effectiveness has not been scientifically evaluated, they denounced. However, 74% of French people consider homeopathy effective.
A refund that divides
Faced with the division on the subject, the HAS was seized in August by Agnès Buzyn to assess its effectiveness and decide on the end or not of the current reimbursement. “We decided to reimburse homeopathy without any scientific evaluation. Perhaps it could come under common law and be evaluated. If it is useful, it will remain reimbursed. If it is useless, it will stop being useless”said the Minister of Health on France Inter.
This Tuesday, December 4, 131 members of the Academies of Science, Medicine and Pharmacy reopened the file through a grandstand in The Express. They again denounce the reimbursement of granules: “ We believe that the debate around the effectiveness of homeopathy which persists in public opinion has no place in the scientific community. […] We refute the term “drug” for a product that does not demonstrate its effectiveness. We are therefore contesting its reimbursement by the national community..
The HAS therefore has a thorny issue in its hands. It has already carried out a review of the international scientific literature on the subject (scientific studies, opinions from learned societies, recommendations from health authorities in other countries). In the coming days, she is preparing to launch “a call for contributions to collect the arguments of all stakeholders”.
Read also :
- After the “anti alternative medicine” forum, homeopaths strike back
- The University of Lille suspends its course in homeopathy
