No more trying to do it all. "From this fall, PCR tests will be paid for, except for medical prescription, and this in order to encourage vaccination rather than the multiplication of tests", announced Emmanuel Macron in his speech this Monday evening. If the Head of State did not specify the details of the measure, which will be part of a text discussed by parliamentarians convened in an extraordinary session on July 21, he did not hide his intentions. By charging for screenings, Emmanuel Macron hopes that test candidates, particularly those said to be “comfort”, will be reluctant and will choose, ultimately, to go through the vaccination box.
France is one of the small handful of countries, along with Norway, Denmark and Montenegro, to practice free testing.
Emmanuel Macron did not mention it, but this radical change in strategy also aims to relieve the state budget.
For the last year alone, the massive screening campaign represented an expenditure of 2.6 billion euros for health insurance.
What price ?
How much will the tests cost from October? The prices should be the same as those charged to foreign tourists: up to 49 euros for PCRs and 29 euros for antigens. If these prices are likely to make those who practice them several times a week cough, they are still very far from those posted in many countries. It takes more than a hundred euros in the United Kingdom, Sweden or the Netherlands. In Spain, Portugal, Italy or Greece, prices range from 50 to 100 euros.
The debates around the end of this French exception are likely to be lively in the days to come. The executive can, however, count on the support of a few political figures, such as the president of the Ile-de-France region Valérie Pécresse "in favor" of charging for anti-Covid "comfort" tests. However, other voices are raised. The national secretary of Europe Ecology-the Greens, Julien Bayou, spoke out against it, fearing that people who “are within 10, 20, 50 euros” give up screening.
