Small setback for the government. The Constitutional Council on Thursday censured a criticized measure in the Social Security budget, providing for the suspension of an employee’s daily allowances if a doctor mandated by his employer considers that his work stoppage is unjustified. A provision providing for the possibility for the Minister of Health to limit or prohibit the prescription by telemedicine of medicines out of supply, was also censored in this Social Security financing bill (PLFSS) for 2024.
The Constitutional Council, seized by the left-wing deputies and the Republicans (LR), on the other hand rejected the accusation of “insincerity” of the applicants, who judged that the forecasts of growth, inflation and expenditure were too optimistic in this budget definitively adopted by Parliament at the beginning of December. On daily allowances, the elders ruled in favor of the opposition, who considered that the measure was contrary to the right of a person unable to work “to obtain suitable means of existence from the community”.
The three-day limit for teleconsultation work stoppages validated
The measure allowed a doctor mandated by an employer to call into question a work stoppage, without having to carry out a medical examination of the insured. And to be able to thus deprive him of compensation without systematic intervention of the Health Insurance medical control.
Concerning the prescription of medication through a telemedicine act, the Council ruled that the censored provision could “deprive a patient of the possibility of being prescribed a medication necessary for their state of health for the sole reason that they consulted a remote doctor.
On the other hand, the wise people validated the limitation to three days – with some exceptions – of work stoppages by teleconsultation. A duration corresponding to the waiting period not compensated by Health Insurance, a way for the government to reintroduce the reimbursement censored last year by the same Constitutional Council.