Paris (AFP)
Homeopathic medicines and preparations will no longer be reimbursed by the Social Security from January 1, 2021, according to two decrees published Tuesday in the Official Journal.
Referring to the overwhelming opinion of the High Health Authority that concluded in late June the lack of proven effectiveness of homeopathic products, the Ministry of Health published Tuesday two regulatory texts to organize their disbursement.
The first order concerns the removal of homeopathic medicines from the list of reimbursable specialties. Hundreds of specialties, some very well known as Arnica montana, gelsemium sempervirens or nux vomica, are mentioned.
The Transparency Commission gave an unfavorable opinion on the reimbursement of these medicines because of "the lack of convincing demonstration of efficacy (...) in the affections / symptoms for which data were found in the literature", " the lack of evidence of efficacy superior to placebo or an active comparator "and the fact that" these homeopathic medicines do not allow, as part of a therapeutic strategy, to reduce the consumption of other drugs ", recalls the government in this decree.
A second decree puts an end to the assumption by the health insurance of the homeopathic preparations, carried out by the pharmacists, "in the absence of demonstrated interest for the public health".
In both cases, the complete cancellation will occur on January 1, 2021.
In the meantime, the Ministry of Health told AFP, it will be up to the National Union of health insurance funds to set the decline in the rate of assumption on 1 January 2020 to 15%.
Some homeopathic medicines have so far been reimbursed by social security without having proven their scientific efficacy, under a derogatory status. Their reimbursement rate, set at 65% in 1984, had already been reduced to 35% in 2003 and 30% in 2011.
Last year, homeopathy accounted for 126.8 million euros out of about 20 billion for all drugs reimbursed, according to health insurance.
© 2019 AFP