(Reuters) - Thousands of medics marchedthrough Paris on Sunday to protest against changes they say willincrease bureaucracy and harm healthcare but which thegovernment says are needed to ensure everyone has access to adoctor.
Two days before lawmakers start discussing a new law,doctors, dentists, physiotherapists, nurses and students fromaround the country joined the medical profession's biggestprotest march in over two decades.
They carried banners reading "This law is extremely harmfulto health" and "Doctors are chained, people are lied to."
The wide-ranging law is part of government efforts to proveto its European Union peers that it is serious about reformingthe economy.
Anger over the law focuses on the government's plan to makeit free to see a private practitioner at the point of use andrequiring the doctor to seek payment from the fund.
The standard practice now in France is to pay 23 euros ($24) up-front for a consultation and be reimbursed by thepublic health insurance fund later - an arrangement theSocialist government says puts many low-earners off going to thedoctor.
Practitioners say the reform will raise their administrativeworkload and lead to late payments for their services. They alsosay the bill will give private medical insurers too much powerand is a missed opportunity for an in-depth reform of France'shealthcare system.
"Doctors are against this ideological law that was draftedwithout consulting us," surgeon Claude Rainier said as hemarched against the reform.
"We want to be able to practice medicine and not just dopaperwork," said Laurence Pique, a general practitioner in theParis region.
The healthcare bill, which opinion polls show is popularamong voters, comes just after the government forced a flagshipeconomic reform bill through parliament by decree, opening uplegal professions and broadening shop opening hours.
The economic bill also prompted demonstrations bywhite-collar professionals such as notaries, bailiffs and courtclerks. ($1 = 0.9531 euros) (Reporting by Thierry Chiarello and Yann Le Guernigou; Writingby Ingrid Melander; Editing by Ruth Pitchford)
Two days before lawmakers start discussing a new law,doctors, dentists, physiotherapists, nurses and students fromaround the country joined the medical profession's biggestprotest march in over two decades.
They carried banners reading "This law is extremely harmfulto health" and "Doctors are chained, people are lied to."
The wide-ranging law is part of government efforts to proveto its European Union peers that it is serious about reformingthe economy.
Anger over the law focuses on the government's plan to makeit free to see a private practitioner at the point of use andrequiring the doctor to seek payment from the fund.
The standard practice now in France is to pay 23 euros ($24) up-front for a consultation and be reimbursed by thepublic health insurance fund later - an arrangement theSocialist government says puts many low-earners off going to thedoctor.
Practitioners say the reform will raise their administrativeworkload and lead to late payments for their services. They alsosay the bill will give private medical insurers too much powerand is a missed opportunity for an in-depth reform of France'shealthcare system.
"Doctors are against this ideological law that was draftedwithout consulting us," surgeon Claude Rainier said as hemarched against the reform.
"We want to be able to practice medicine and not just dopaperwork," said Laurence Pique, a general practitioner in theParis region.
The healthcare bill, which opinion polls show is popularamong voters, comes just after the government forced a flagshipeconomic reform bill through parliament by decree, opening uplegal professions and broadening shop opening hours.
The economic bill also prompted demonstrations bywhite-collar professionals such as notaries, bailiffs and courtclerks. ($1 = 0.9531 euros) (Reporting by Thierry Chiarello and Yann Le Guernigou; Writingby Ingrid Melander; Editing by Ruth Pitchford)
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