This is the flagship measure of the new plan against social fraud decided by the government: the merger of the Vitale card with the identity card. A reflection carried out at the top of the State which raises several questions. 20 minutes make the point.
A weapon to fight against social fraud?
The purpose of the identity card and Vitale card merger: to counter fraudsters, in order to avoid loans or “rentals” of Vitale cards which allow some to benefit from free care. “That’s what we’re going for. Now the question is how and when,” said Gabriel Attal.
Already adopted by several European countries (Sweden, Portugal, Belgium), the merger is greeted with restraint by the political class. Offensive on the subject of social fraud, the Republicans would have preferred a biometric Vitale card, a project which seems to have been rejected by the executive because of its cost.
According to Bercy, social fraud is estimated at 8 billion euros in social security contributions “evaded for informal work”, 2.8 billion in social benefits paid by the family allowance funds, 200 million by the pension funds of the regime general and “between 3 and 7% of certain health insurance expenses”.
A risk for personal data
“It’s not a simple question,” concedes Etienne Deshoulières, yet a lawyer specializing in personal data, when asked about the difficulties that the merger could raise from the point of view of data protection. The use of these is indeed governed by the famous GDPR (or General Data Protection Regulation) which prohibits the merging of files. “This implies that the data processed cannot be used for different purposes”, specifies the lawyer. However, in the case of the merger, we would have data collected by the Civil Registry processed by the Health Insurance and vice versa. “In principle, it would not be possible,” adds Me Deshoulières.
But the magic of law lies in its exceptions. “The question that arises is whether a law could circumvent this prohibition? It is not impossible. Because the GDPR, a European text, provides that certain specific processing operations may be authorized by the law of a Member State. But the government will be on a particularly perilous crest line, especially since health data is particularly sensitive and “requires special treatment”. For his part, Gabriel Attal ensures that “the CNIL [Commission nationale de l’informatique et des libertés] does not oppose” this merger. Waiting for his official opinion.
A technically difficult implementation?
Among the fears raised by this project, the administrative delays. For many French people, it is already difficult to obtain an identity document or a passport without waiting many months. “Difficulties” of which the government is aware.
A prefiguration mission common to the Ministries of Public Accounts, Health and the Interior will begin at the beginning of July “in order to work on the technical and legal implementation” of this measure, the latter indicated in a joint statement. The conclusions are expected before the end of the year.