INFO LE FIGARO – The elected representatives of the Upper House don´t believe in the incentives proposed by Marisol Touraine. On the contrary, they suggest to exclude from the Insurance those practitioners who want to move in overpopulated areas.
In order to repopulate the medical deserts, the senators have a radical measure: to obstruct the free choice of settling in of doctors and not encouraging them to open medical practices in overpopulated areas. This is at least what they are advocating in an explosive report published on Thursday and which Le Figaro have found out of. ËExcept from the doctors, all healthcare professional fields are controlled, justifies Herve Maurei (UDI), the author, together with the socialist Jean-Luc Fichet, of the report proved unanimously by the Town and Country Planning Commission. We don´t propose to abolish the practitioners´ freedom of settling in, we just want to restrict the absolute liberalism leading to the desertification of certain areas.Ë
In concrete terms, the  elected representatives of the Upper House propose to exclude from the Health insurance those doctors who would chose to settle in already overpopulated areas. As a consequence, as their patients wouldn´t be repayed by the Insurance, it would be impossible for young doctors to form his/her patient circle. A similar measure, applied to nurses in 2008, lead in 3 years to a leap of 33%  in settling in medical deserts. The specialist doctors (gynaecologists, cardiologists, etc.) would benefit from a more restricted regime, by the establishment of a compulsory two years medical service, at the end of their studies, in the small hospitals of the county towns which face a great difficulty in recruiting doctors.
Blocking of the hospitals
ËWe have to inform the students right from the start that this system could be generalised if the medical deserts keep extending to the end of the legislatureË guarantees Hervé Maurey, who has in sight the medical universities.  ËWe have to regionalize the numerus clausus according to the needs of the areas, as currently this mecanisme doesn´t define the actual number of the students in medicine but only at national levelË insists the senator of the Eure.
So far, the doctors have had the tendency to settle in the towns where they studied. Only a few opt for the countryside in order to replace their fellow members who are more and more numerous and close to retire. Ë Result, in my town Bernay (10.500 inhabitants), three doctors have closed their medical practice in just one yearË testifies the center party elected representative. In order to fight this affliction, the senators don´t believe in these incentives, that they consider Ëunclear, complexe and inefficientË. The Healthcare minister, Marisol Touraine, who presented at the end of 2012 a plan of fight against the deserts exclusively based on incentive, will appreciate.
To attack the freedom of settle in of the doctors is a dangerous political exercice. ËAll governments have stepped back in front of electoral difficulties of doctors and internal strikesË admits Hervé Maurey. Leading besides sometimes to the blocking of the hospitals over several weeks. Jean-Marc Ayrault, as his predecessors in Matignon. In 2011, when he was the leader of the socialist deputies, the prime minister wanted then, together with Marisol Touraine, to submit the doctors´ settling in to the authorization prior to administration. A chock measure named Ërural shieldË which have been mothballed since Francois Hollande was elected.
Source of the article here
