Paris: The French government said on Wednesday it would stop reimbursing patients for homoeopathic treatment from 2021 after a major national study concluded the alternative medicine had no proven benefit. Health Minister Agnes Buzyn, a former doctor who has vowed to place scientific rigour at the heart of policy, said she had made the decision after a damning verdict on homoeopathy by the national health authority in June.
Buzyn said the refunds paid by French social security will be phased down to 15 per cent in 2020 and then to zero in 2021.
France’s National Authority for Health concluded at the end of June there was no benefit to the medicine, saying it had “not scientifically demonstrated sufficient effectiveness to justify a reimbursement”. France’s approach is being closely followed in Germany, where some 7,000 homoeopathic doctors are registered. Britain stopped funding homoeopathic care in 2017, while public health systems in other EU countries such as Sweden, Belgiun or Austria do not support the treatment. — AFP
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