The Health bill was voted on Tuesday in the National Assembly. Despite the adoption of widespread third-party payment, many questions remain unanswered.
More than a year after the presentation of the project in the Council of Ministers, the Health law was finally adopted on Tuesday. In a formal vote, 296 deputies voted for and 243 against. But far from closing the chapter, this vote could be the beginning of a large-scale sling between the liberal doctors and the Ministry of Health. With a real impact on patients. Why actor gives you the keys to understanding the conflict.
Throughout the day, the liberal medical unions reacted strongly. With tweets or press releases, they recalled that their mobilization was not over. Demonstrations, cabinet strikes, or even civil disobedience everything remains on the table for these practitioners.
These choices should be decided in a few days. And in their sights, always the same measure, the generalized third-party payment (exemption in advance of medical expenses) planned for 2017.
An anachronistic vote according to doctors
The Confederation of French Medical Syndicates (CSMF), the main union of liberal doctors, summed up the situation in a tweet. It indicates that “the deputies voted on the generalized third party payment while the modalities of application have still not been defined”. A situation that she describes as “ubuesque”.
This attack directly concerns the technical system to be set up by the Health Insurance and complementary health insurance. A file on which things are clearly treading water. While initially the Health Insurance was to submit a report on the issue on October 31 to Marisol Touraine, the Minister of Health had to concede that the two actors had taken “a little late”.
An incomprehensible situation that Dr. Claude Leicher, president of the MG France union, explains by the battle between the two actors.
Claude Leicher, president of MG France: ” I bet today that we will find the same battle that the Health insurance and the complementary health were fought on the CMU third party payment… “
In this bickering, Marisol Touraine tried to camera the game. An amendment to the Health law allows, in fact, the submission of the Health Insurance report one month after the promulgation of the law, that is to say current January 2016.
The medical unions are worried about this situation because they have no information on the device for the moment. For this reason, they fear an inapplicable technical solution.
Dr Claude Leicher : ” The danger is that they risk introducing into our practices all the malfunctions and anamolias of a device that would not function correctly.… “
La Mutualité Française is more reassuring. In The Parisian, the Federation, which brings together complementary health mutuals, assured this Tuesday that it was only a matter of weeks to find a functional technical device.
Liberal doctors no longer believe in it. The latest data from the Third Party Payant Observatory are, it is true, not reassuring. Created in November 2014 to denounce late payment for third-party payment acts, it has since analyzed more than 265,000 invoices. With always the same observation, the contractual deadlines are not respected in more than 50% of these invoices. The situation would be most critical for patients under State Medical Aid (AME).
Dr Bertrand Legrand, founder of the Third Party Paying Observatory: ” We realize that between 10 and 15% of invoices are paid beyond 20 days… “
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