The director of health insurance will receive representatives of medical analysis laboratories on Monday, said the latter, who oppose the savings demanded by the government after the two years of the Covid epidemic.

The government intends to impose a €250m cut on laboratories – whose profits have soared due to the tests carried out during the health crisis – in the 2023 social security funding bill.

The biologists expect from their meeting with the director of health insurance, Thomas Fatôme, “a written and quantified proposal” that does not cross the “red line”, namely an “aeroplane” of 250 million euros for the year 2023 alone, explained. to AFP on Friday the president of the Alliance for Medical Biology (ABM), Alain Le Meur.

They also reject a permanent reduction in the pricing of actions and demand visibility on the budget for 2024 and 2025, he added. If they do not win their case, they plan a strike movement from November 14.

On October 27, the laboratories had already suspended the transfer of the results of their RT-PCR screening tests (Covid tests) to the national SI-DEP file, making it more difficult to monitor the development of the epidemic.

The move had angered the government, which condemned an “unacceptable” boycott. Biologists resumed the transmission of test results on November 2 to show a “sign of openness”, according to the president of the ABM, which brings together trade unions and major laboratory groups.

Budget Minister Gabriel Attal pointed out last week that labs had made significant profits thanks to Covid tests paid for by Social Security over the past two years, with margins rising from “18% to 26%”.

For Alain Le Meur, these profits paid out by the government do not take into account the investments made and the collections of our debts. “If the reduction in the price of our actions was permanent, we would divide our results by six”, he assured.