Since the announcement, at the end of September, of an economy of 250 million euros to be achieved in the sector, liberal biologists have opposed it by all means, fearing a lasting price drop.
Le Monde with AFP
After a month in an showdown with the government around the social security budget for 2023, the biologists’ unions take a new stage and start, on Monday, November 14, an “unlimited strike” of medical analysis laboratories.
Since the announcement, at the end of September, of an economy of 250 million euros to be made willingly or by force in the sector, liberal biologists have a “stroke of planer” and oppose by all means. Fearing a lasting drop in prices, they first proposed an “exceptional tax” of the same amount, as profits garnered thanks to the COVVID tests.
In the absence of agreement, they then stopped transmitting the results of these screenings to the national SI-DEP file, disturbing the follow-up of the epidemic for a week. A boycott deemed “inconsistent” and “inadmissible” by the Minister of Health, François Braun, who even accused them of “taking the entire population hostage”.
received last week at the Headquarters of Maladie, biologists again denounced “austerity madness” and called for a “renewable strike” from Monday. The movement, which should last at least three days, is also carried by the large groups of private laboratories (Biogroup, Cerba, Eurofins, Inovie, Synlab), as well as by the network of independent biologists (LBI).
A “gross surplus of 3 billion” euros
Several unions of other professions have also supported biologists, including eleven organizations grouped within health liberals, as well as UFML doctors. But the executive camps on its position: “I maintain the target, it will lead,” said Braun on Tuesday, believing that “with a gross surplus of 3 billion, they can make an effort of 250 million”.
Health insurance “continues to favor dialogue” and “deeply regret the call for strike”, judging its proposals “fully sustainable for the biology sector”. Biologists, however, received the Senate reinforcement this week when examining the social security budget project.
Sweaking their claim, the senators voted for an amendment transforming this “sustainable decrease” into an exceptional contribution of 250 million euros in 2023. A outstretched hand which “reopens the way for a negotiated solution”, judge liberal biologists. In government and the National Assembly to “take up this opportunity”, they argued.