Paris (AFP)
On October 15, Covid-19 screening tests will no longer be reimbursed except on medical grounds or for people who have been vaccinated.
A decision that could turn out to be a "double-edged" bet in terms of health.
Prime Minister Jean Castex confirmed last week this announcement made in July by the Head of State.
Tests will continue to be reimbursed for medical reasons, either without prescription for people already vaccinated, or on prescription for others.
Free admission should also be maintained for minors.
Initially announced to encourage vaccination, this decision also responds to economic considerations: "It is no longer legitimate to pay excessively for comfort tests at taxpayers' expense", justified the Prime Minister.
People wait to be tested on August 9, 2021 in Montpellier Pascal GUYOT AFP / Archives
Until now, France was one of the few countries in the world not to require symptoms or to be in contact to fully reimburse PCR tests.
A policy that has a cost: 6.2 billion euros this year.
Since the beginning of July, except for medical reasons, the tests had already become paying for foreign tourists coming to France: they must now pay 43.89 euros for a PCR test, 25 euros for an antigen test.
"The logic is to reimburse the tests linked to genuinely medical reasons, and to continue to encourage people to be vaccinated", insisted the Prime Minister.
While nearly three quarters of the population are fully vaccinated, there are potentially 6 million adults to be convinced.
However, charging the unvaccinated for tests could encourage them to take the plunge if they want to benefit from the health pass in force.
A temporary Covid-19 screening structure next to a pharmacy in Trouville-sur-Mer, Normandy, August 4, 2021 Sameer Al-DOUMY AFP / Archives
The flip side is that we will "probably have fewer positive people who will be tested," epidemiologist Pascal Crépey told AFP.
With a risk of a rebound in the epidemic linked to the arrival of autumn, it is not certain that this policy is "tenable", he believes.
- "Abuses" -
According to ministry data, the number of tests performed has been falling every week since a peak in mid-August: we went from 5.7 million tests on that date to 3.6 million the week of September 20.
With the announced delisting, some fear inequality in access to care: "Only those who can afford it will continue to test themselves," warns infectious disease specialist Gilles Pialoux.
A banner urging to be tested, December 26, 2020, on the gates of the Bretonneau hospital in Tours Guillaume SOUVANT AFP / Archives
"Until October 15, the prospect of this delisting will perhaps act as a slight incitement to vaccination", judge for his part Mahmoud Zureik, professor of epidemiology at the University of Versailles-Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines .
"But then, access to care differentiated between vaccinated and unvaccinated may promote the spread of the virus. It is a double-edged sword."
If the epidemiologist considers it normal that "the comfort tests are no longer reimbursed because we were in excess and there was abuse", restricting their access involves, according to him, two risks.
"We will no longer be able to correctly follow the evolution of the epidemic because the incidence rate, one of the earliest indicators, will be affected," he says.
But "the major risk is that the need to have a medical prescription dissuades people who have symptoms or who are in contact with going to be tested. In addition, the time to obtain a prescription gives the virus time to spread ".
Covid-19 screening test in a college in Vico, Corsica, January 29, 2021 Pascal POCHARD-CASABIANCA AFP / Archives
For others, it is the whole testing policy that must be reviewed from top to bottom: "We wasted an incredible amount of money on testing while letting the virus circulate because there was no strategy for these tests ", deplores Catherine Hill, epidemiologist at the Gustave-Roussy Institute.
According to her, we have never been able to trace all the cases of Covid-19 because since the start of the epidemic, "we have always tested no matter how".
To change the situation, it would now be necessary to "do group tests: for example in all classes in France twice a week", she advocates.
© 2021 AFP