In a plenary session, MR MP Daniel Bacquelaine challenged the Health Minister on his worrying plans for healthcare.
The MR has always defended a high-performing, accessible and liberal healthcare model, based on freedom of choice, professional autonomy and accountability of practitioners. A model that is the strength of our system and guarantees every citizen fast, high-quality access to effective care.
But today, healthcare providers are expressing legitimate concerns about the reforms, contrary to the government agreement, that Minister Vandenbroucke intends to implement.
“Never have healthcare providers felt so disrespected. The lack of consultation, the opacity of decisions, and technocratic measures taken without any grounding in reality on the ground are stirring up a wave of legitimate concern,” says Daniel Bacquelaine.
The announced measures are counterproductive:
- Abolishing partial agreement status? That means further reducing patient care capacityand lengthening waiting times.
- Reserving INAMI bonuses solely for agreed doctors? That is turning a lever for innovation into a tool of blackmail.
- Drastically capping fee supplements without reforming the nomenclature or hospital financing? That means undermining the already fragile balance of many hospitals and threatening outpatient consultations.
- Withdrawing an INAMI number without guaranteeing the right to defence? That means weakening the appeal of an already struggling profession.
- Making union funding conditional on the agreement rate of their members? That is nothing less than an attack on union independence.
“Our healthcare system doesn't need bureaucratic chest-thumping. It needs structural reforms: reform of the nomenclature, of hospital financing, of the hospital landscape. These projects are in the government agreement. They are expected. They are urgent, we must implement them,” adds the MR MP.
The Minister must change course, restore dialogue and build reforms through consultation, not confrontation. The Mouvement Réformateur will continue to defend an accessible, high-quality healthcare system that respects those who keep it running every day.