French Social Security Reform In 1996

French premier Alain Juppe has indicated that his social security reform plan will go ahead in 1996, apart from some proposals on special retirement regimes which were abandoned during the nationwide strikes.

Parliamentary examination of plans to revise the constitution to give parliament more control over social spending will start at end-January, while the new rules on the control of health care spending in general practice, health fund and other social security management and the reform of the hospitals sector will be worked out by end-April. A draft law setting up a universal health insurance regime is among other reform projects due for completion before the summer.

Last month French doctors demonstrated on the streets of Paris, for the first time in four years, against one of the main themes of the reform, a 1996 limit on medical spending of 2.1%. The protest was supported by the CSMF, SML and FMF doctors' organizations, but not by MG France, to which most general practitioners belong, which refused because talks were underway with the government. Nor was it backed by the surgeons in the UCCSF, which said the Juppe plan was "the first serious and courageous attempt to inject order into the social protection system."