The Council of State validated on Friday the end of free “comfort” tests to detect Covid-19, rejecting several requests, including an urgent appeal from the Solidaires union against the decree ending this free service.
This measure, aimed at both convincing the last refractory to vaccination and curbing expenditure related to tests, came into force on October 15.
The highest administrative court considers that the end of the free admission of these tests "does not have the effect of making the requirement to present the health pass in certain circumstances disproportionate with regard to the public health objectives that it pursues", according to her decision.
For two weeks, coronavirus screening tests have no longer been reimbursed for people who are not fully vaccinated, with some exceptions (medical prescription, contact case, recent positive test, contraindication to the vaccine).
"No international standard (...), no legislative provision or no general principle imposes the coverage by health insurance of a biology examination", notes the Council of State in its decision.
In addition, "the development of free access" to anti-Covid vaccination "for all people not suffering from medical contraindications to a vaccine", as well as "the evolution of the health context" and "the burden financial "free tests for the State" are such as to justify ending this support "tests, believes the Council.
Until now, France has been one of the few countries in the world not to require symptoms or to be a contact case to fully reimburse PCR tests.
The cost ?
Almost 6.2 billion euros.
"No more difficulty in getting vaccinated for free"
“Moreover”, he continues, the price of the tests which “corresponds to their real cost (…) is not of such importance” that it can “prevent the people concerned from using them”.
And "today there are no longer any difficulties for people who can and wish to be vaccinated for free", he notes, judging that the end of the entire free test "could not be regarded as having the object or effect of compelling vaccination ”.
On the other hand, the Council of State accepted other requests, including that of the association VIA-La Voie du peuple.
He thus suspended a decree of October 14 according to which self-tests carried out under the supervision of a health professional are no longer recognized as proof for the health pass.
Read also End of free anti-Covid tests: "For 60 million French people, nothing changes"
The Minister of Health "does not invoke any reason relating to the effectiveness" of the self-test and he "confines himself to indicating that this test was planned only in order to prevent difficulties of access to the tests. RT-PCR or antigens when setting up the health pass, difficulties which have not occurred and which are no longer likely to occur, ”underlines the Council in particular.
PCR tests cost 44 euros for adults who have not been vaccinated without a prescription.
As for antigenic tests, they are charged 22 euros if they are carried out in the laboratory.
In pharmacies, you have to pay 25 euros and even 30 euros on weekends.
As a result of this measure, the number of PCR and antigen tests performed has dropped sharply.
In all, 2.3 million RT-PCR and antigen tests were performed from October 18 to 24, compared to 2.97 million the previous week, a decrease of 675,000 tests.