Despite a popular campaign under the slogan Mon Homeo Mon Choix, My Homeopathy, my Choice, (https://www.monhomeomonchoix.fr/) including a petition which was signed by over 1.2 million people, the French government has announced its decision to stop reimbursing the costs of homeopathy through the national medical system.
It is important to note that homeopathic medication was only 30% reimbursed until now, and this figure will drop to 15% for 2020 before stopping completely in 2021. Homeopathic medication will of course still be available and it is likely that homeopathy will continue to be popular amongst the French, as it is for many Europeans.
After several months of debate, the French government has made its decision, opting for a total disbursement of homeopathy within two years.
Agnès Buzyn has stated several times that she would follow the opinion of the High Health Authority (HAS) before making her final decision. At the end of June, HAS recommended stopping the reimbursement of homeopathic products, on the basis that they believed there was not enough evidence of its efficacy.
Despite the clear need to reduce costs in the national health system in France, homeopathy supporters have pointed out that the cost of reimbursing homeopathic medicine represented merely 130 million euros of the 20 billion disbursed for all drugs, a small saving, which may well be offset by an increase in the use of other drugs that cause complications. This may lead to a rise in iatrogenic hospitalisations (caused by medication). It could also speed up the emergence of new bacterial strains resistant to several antibiotics at the same time (known as multidrug-resistant bacteria). Such bacteria may eventually become resistant to all existing antibiotics.
