Big announcement small effects? The Health Insurance doubts the interest of the project to merge the identity card with the Vitale card, envisaged by the government, believing that it will have a minimal effect in the fight against fraud, according to an official report published on Thursday.
The Minister Delegate for Public Accounts Gabriel Attal unveiled last Monday a vast plan to fight against social fraud, including this project to merge the national identity card with the Vitale card. It is supposed to combat identity fraud, where one person uses another's card.
Read alsoFusion of Vitale and identity cards: security, cost, schedule... The questions that arise
But a letter from the Health Insurance dated April 3, appearing in a report by the General Inspectorate of Social Affairs (Igas) and the General Inspectorate of Finance (IGF) published on Thursday, shows that it is not favorable to the project, considering that it does not seem to meet "any need". The "added value in the fight against fraud remains entirely to be demonstrated", since "the amounts of fraud likely to be linked to fraudulent use of the Carte Vitale are minimal", writes in this letter the director general of the CNAM, Thomas Fatôme.
A feasibility study requested
The IGF/IGF report itself recalls that identity fraud is "residual in number of cases detected (...) and uphill." Indeed, three quarters of fraud against the benefits of the Health Insurance Fund (estimated at between 3.5 and 4.6 billion euros by the Court of Auditors) are frauds committed by professionals. The remaining quarter is attributable to users, but the two most important items - fraud in daily allowances (sick leave) and fraud in complementary solidarity health - do not involve the Carte Vitale.
The Health Insurance also believes that the project could "weaken" the deployment of the Carte Vitale application on smartphones, which can replace, for those who wish, the small green card.
The IGF/IGF report nevertheless takes a more positive view of the merger project, considering in particular that it could solve "recurring difficulties" on the attachment of minor children, and recommends a detailed study of the technical feasibility and desirability of the project. The government must launch by early July a prefiguration mission, in order to "work on the legal and technical implementation" of this merger.
