“Ministers Attal and Braun, do you really want to risk a general mobilization of health liberals when our health system is still so fragile?” the medical biology laboratory unions warn in a statement on Tuesday.
Received this Monday at the Medicare headquarters, they claim to have “hit a wall.” They thus call for a renewable strike as of Monday, November 14.
1,276 million euros of savings in medical biology until 2026
As part of the Social Security Financing Bill (PLFSS), the government plans to lower fees for biology procedures, arguing that Covid-19 tests filled its coffers during the epidemic. The analysis laboratories are then summoned to lower the prices of their current tests.
“Medical biology laboratories share the Government’s goal of better control of health spending and have affirmed their desire to participate in the exceptional effort on COVID spending,” the unions write in their press release.
However, they denounce a change of line by the director of Medicare, Thomas Fatôme. “From 180 million euros of savings initially planned for one year (2023), the bill now skyrockets to 280 million euros by 2023, 332 million by 2024, 332 million by 2025 and 332 million by 2026,” they lament.
“We don’t shoot those we send to the front”
The Medical Biology Alliance denounces “austerity madness” and “a planned suffocation project for medical biology.” According to her, this decision will entail the risk “that the deserts of the laboratories will be added to the medical deserts tomorrow.”
“When we decide on public policies, we do not shoot those we send to the front,” the laboratories point out, referring to their mobilization in the fight against the pandemic.
However, the executive seems reluctant to change his mind. Precisely the government spokesman, Olivier Véran, declared this Sunday that “there will be no going back” in the savings included in the Social Security budget and that “there is no reason to review this position.”
Source: BFM TV
