Treatments should not be reimbursed until medical benefit is proven, experts say
French medical and drug experts say homeopathic medicines should no longer be paid for by the country’s health system because there is no evidence they work.
The conclusion in a joint report from the prestigious Academy of Medicine and the Academy of Pharmacy comes as the country’s centrist government considers halting the reimbursement of alternative health treatments.
The two academies also recommended stopping degrees in homeopathy from medical faculties.
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In a joint statement, they declared “no homeopathic preparation should be reimbursed by Assurance Maladie [France’s health insurance] until the demonstration of sufficient medical benefit has been provided. No university degree in homeopathy should be issued by medical or pharmaceutical faculties.”
The academies said rigorous meta-analyses had not shown homeopathy’s effectiveness, but admitted it might have a placebo effect.
“The reimbursing of these products by the social security seems aberrant at a time when, for economic reasons, we are not reimbursing many classic medicines because they are more or less considered to not work well enough,” they wrote.
France’s social security, which is in the red, pays for just under €130m (£112m) worth of homeopathy every year – about 30% of the cost of each homeopathic treatment – out of a total of €19.9bn worth of medicines reimbursed.
A year ago, the Collège National des Généralistes Engseignants, the national association for teaching doctors, said there was no way to justify the reimbursement of these treatments or the teaching of homeopathy in medical schools. “It is necessary to abandon these esoteric methods, which belong in the history books,” it wrote.
At the same time, 124 doctors signed an open letter attacking alternative medicine including homeopathy, which they said was “dangerous and fantasist … practised by charlatans of all kinds”.
Afterwards, the homeopathic doctors’ union, Le Syndicat National des Médecins Homéopathe Français, lodged several official complaints disputing the claims.
Agnès Buzyn, the health minister, has asked France’s medical council, the Haute Autorité de Santé to evaluate the efficacy of homeopathy and the basis for it being reimbursed. The HAS is expected to publish its findings in June.
A survey by Odoxa in January showed 72% of French people believed homeopathy had benefits.
Gilles Bonnefond, president of one of the pharmacist unions, told RTL radio that stopping reimbursements would be a mistake. “Homeopathy is used by many French people,” he said. “When we’re dealing with patients, science isn’t the only rule.”
LeSygneNoir on March 30th, 2019 at 11:05 UTC »
For necessary background: This is rather ballsy and appreciated move as homeopathy is very much an institution in France.
For some reason (which of course has noooothing to do with the laboratoires Boiron being one of the leading producers of sugar pills with an atom from a duck's liver in the world), we're one of the countries with the highest homeopathy usage and about 3/4 of the population believe in its effectiveness.
Now, to nuance that, I'll point out that homeopathy is mostly used "over the counter" as self-medication for small issues and only prescribed medicine is reimbursed by the Assurance Maladie. Considering that the number of doctors who prescribe homeopathy is extremely limited (though we have our share of actual M.Ds calling themselves homeopaths), we are not talking massive numbers here.
The most significant element in this is the willingness to get rid of a pervasive "homeopaths" lobby, that is MDs with a specialization in homeopathy (I know...) who use their influence within medical associations (such as the Ordre des Médecins, a body actually in charge of enforcing good deontology for french MDs) to silence critics.
Vocal opponents of homeopathy have sometimes and even recently been actively blamed on deontological ground by the Order for failing to go along with the scam of their colleagues.
This might be the most significant impact of this change in position from the government.
MASSIVE EDIT
In a very un-scientific manner (which was appropriate), I completely freeballed my estimates in this, about how ubiquitous homeopathy is in France. That said, I wasn't far.
So, here's the solid data from a 2012 study by Ipsos (https://www.ipsos.com/fr-fr/lhomeopathie-fait-de-plus-en-plus-dadeptes). They're a solid polling group, with usually reliable (if self-declared) data. I'm okay with it being self-declared, considering that homeopathy is a placebo and therefore all about trust and opinions.
56% of french people use homeopathic medicine, an increase of 17 points compared to 2004. 36% of people are regular users, an increase of 13 points compared to 2004.
77% of respondants declare trusting homeopathy. That's the same level as antalgics, and far higher than antibiotics and antidepressants.
90% of respondants think homeopathy should be reimbursed
90% of respondants think homeopathy should be available in hospitals
That said: 44% of respondants think they are "poorly informed" about homeopathy. No, you think?
Gemmabeta on March 30th, 2019 at 10:42 UTC »
Homeopathy has a lot of clout in France. It is literally an arm of Big Pharmatm at this point.
France is home to the world's largest homeopathy company, Borion, and it's worth around $1 billion.
dancedar on March 30th, 2019 at 09:53 UTC »
Give them homeopathic amounts of money, the more dilute the funds the more they can do with it