That’s it: since January 1, 2021, homeopathy is no longer reimbursed in France. A delisting which should have an impact on the population since, according to an Ipsos survey carried out for Boiron laboratories in October 2018, 70% of French people use homeopathy to relieve their first symptoms, 74% consider that homeopathic remedies are “efficient“, and 71% think that homeopathy is a good complement to” classic “treatments.
How to explain this delisting? Questioned by our colleagues from Parisian in July 2019, the former Minister of Health Agnès Buzyn explained that “everything that is funded by national solidarity is first evaluated by the Haute Autorité de Santé (HAS). (…) Only homeopathic medicines have escaped it. In 1984, the then Minister of Social Affairs decided to reimburse her without going through this procedure. It was a choice to develop the industry. (…) I contacted the HAS on August 1, 2018. It has just made an independent assessment and estimates, after analyzing 800 studies on the benefit for patients, that these granules have an efficacy equivalent to a placebo.“
The effectiveness of homeopathic remedies disputed by health authorities
The problem is therefore the effectiveness of homeopathic remedies: “I understand the attachment of the French to this type of treatment. But they have neither proven their interest in public health nor in the treatment of common pathologies. Maybe we should work on the idea that it is not always necessary to take a drug“added Agnès Buzyn.
Homeopathy reimbursement: will it (really) change anything? Not so sure. “Already, a large part of these drugs [dont les célèbres Oscillococcinum et Arnigel] are not reimbursed. For the other 1,200, consumed by around 7 million French people in 2018, the average amount reimbursed is 18 euros per year, or less than 1.5 euros per month“said Agnès Buzyn in 2019.
Questioned by our colleagues from the New Republic, the president of the order of pharmacists in Indre-et-Loire, Nicolas Hay, believes that this decision will “cost health insurance money. People who will no longer be treated with homeopathy, because they will have to put their hands in their pockets, will be treated with allopathy, which is more expensive and which is often reimbursed at 30% or 65%. (…) Even if it is by a placebo effect, homeopathy cured a lot of people.“
Homeopathy: will the prices increase? Possible. Because the delisting of homeopathy by the State (effective from January 1, 2021) allows pharmaceutical companies to freely set their prices. According to industry professionals, prices could rise by 25%.
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