Towards an upcoming increase in the price of a doctor's consultation ? Practitioners are demanding a minimum price of 30 euros

Les syndicats de médecins réclament une consultation à 30 euros. ILLUSTRATION MIDI LIBRE – SYLVIE CAMBON

De nouvelles négociations autour du tarif de la consultation médicale ont lieu ce jeudi 8 février entre les médecins libéraux et l'Assurance maladie. 

Postponed for two weeks due to the change of government, a new round of price negotiations between the unions of private doctors and Health Insurance is being held this Thursday, February 8. The two parties meet to negotiate the minimum price of the medical consultation, report our colleagues from Figaro. 

Negotiations started in November 

Relaunched in November nine months after the failure of a first attempt, these discussions are supposed to set for five years the terms of the medical agreement linking general practitioners with Health Insurance . 

After the last negotiation sessions last November, the basic consultation which had not changed since 2017 had been increased by 1.50 euros, thus going from 25 euros to €26.50. An increase considered "ridiculous" and an "insufficient" for unions and certain health professionals, who are once again demanding a minimum rate of 30 euros. 

"If'there are not thirty euros on the table (for consultation of base with the general practitioner, Editor's note), I will call the minister, and request arbitration", warned the president of the CSMF union in mid-January, Franck Devulder. 

Reducing disparities between generalists and specialists

As CNews points out, the objective of general practitioner unions remains clear: to reduce price disparities between doctors general practitioners and specialists, with whom a consultation in psychiatry or neurology costs on average 39.70 euros and can amount to more than 60 euros. 

Health insurance, for its part, asks doctors for guarantees for access to care, for example by taking on-call duty in hospitals in addition to consultations.