Medical appointments not honored: the amount of the “rabbit tax” that patients will have to pay revealed by Gabriel Attal

This Saturday, April 6, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal unveiled a series of measures concerning the health system. Among them, the amount of the famous "rabbit tax", which should penalize patients who do not honor their medical appointments. 

The government wants certain unkept medical appointments to be punished in the future with a financial penalty of 5 euros payable by the offending patient, declared the Prime Minister Minister Gabriel Attal, Saturday in an interview with several regional press titles.

A battery of measurements

The head of government had already announced during his general policy declaration his desire to implement this so-called “rabbit tax” sanction. This is part of a battery of measures announced on Saturday to try to respond to the crisis in the city healthcare system with the desire to recover 15 to 20 million medical slots.

According to Matignon, it is "responding to the major concerns of the French: access to doctors, the ability to find a meet within an acceptable time frame.

Regarding missed medical appointments, "we can no longer afford it", a declared the Prime Minister who wants the implementation of a "accountability mechanism" via a legal text.

According to the Order of Physicians and certain unions such as the UFML, the cost of these "rabbits" is estimated at 27 million consultations lost each year.

The government wants that from January 1, 2025, on online appointment platforms such as Doctolib, a financial penalty of five euros will be imposed on the patient who does not not presented and who did not notify less than 24 hours in advance. This financial penalty will be at the hand but also for the benefit of the doctor who will have the mission to report it.

Easy access to specialists

Other measures, some already known, were revealed by Gabriel Attal during his interview with the regional daily press. The head of government will continue to push the walls of medical faculties: the number of places in the second year of medicine will increase from 10,000 in 2023 to 12,000 in 2025, then 16,000 in 2027.

But the replacement of the old "numerus clausus" (very limited places) by this "numerus appertus" will only begin to produce its effects from 2035, the time to train these professionals. Gabriel Attal also intends to experiment in certain departments, from January 2025, with direct access to specialists without going through a general practitioner, going against the current rule.