Under the influence of a “permanent” price reduction of 250 million euros per year, included in the 2023 Social Security budget, the medical biology sector has proposed to the Government to replace this measure with an “exceptional tax” on its Covid-related earnings.
“We agree on an exceptional tax,” said Alain Le Meur, spokesman for the Alliance of Medical Biology (APBM), which brings together professional unions and the main analysis laboratory groups. “The profession is unanimous, to pay at once in 2023” an amount close to that planned by the Government, he adds, judging it “normal” to pay a contribution after the “exceptional period” of the health crisis.
But the sector does not want “a lasting drop in prices”, which “runs the risk of disorganizing” the sector and causing “closures”, at least partial, among the 4,200 sites that mesh the territory, he warns.
250 million euros of savings
The Government, for its part, highlights a rate of return “already very favorable before the crisis” and that jumped to 23% in 2020. Enough to justify the measure integrated into the Social Security financing bill for 2023: In the absence of an agreement between Health Insurance and biologists, the Ministry may impose “a price reduction for a savings amount of 250 million euros.”
Unless the “exceptional tax” counterproposal moves the ranks. “We are discussing with the ministry,” says Alain Le Meur, who has already been able to defend his arguments on Tuesday with the deputy Stéphanie Rist, general rapporteur for the Social Security budget. The profession also has relays in Parliament to make amendments during the examination of the text, which will begin next week in committee in the Assembly.
Source: BFM TV
