Health Insurance Strongly Objects to Proposed Merger of Identity Card with Vitale Card

The health insurance has issued “very strong reservations” on the proposed merger of the identity card with the Vitale card envisaged by the government, considering in particular that this will have a minimal effect in the fight against fraud, according to a official report published Thursday 1^is June.

The Minister Delegate for Public Accounts, Gabriel Attal unveiled Monday a vast plan to fight against social fraud, including a project to merge the national identity card with the Vitale card. The government must launch a prefiguration mission by the beginning of July, in order to “work on the legal and technical implementation” of this merger.

But a letter from Health Insurance dated April 3, appearing in a report by the General Inspectorate of Social Affairs (IGAS) and the General Inspectorate of Finance (IGF) published Thursday, shows that this is not favorable to the project, believing that it does not seem to meet “no need”.

The “added value in the fight against fraud remains entirely to be demonstrated”since “the amounts of fraud likely to be linked to fraudulent use of the Vitale card are minimal”writes in this letter the director general of the Cnam, Thomas Fatôme.

Furthermore, the project could ” weaken “ the deployment of the Vitale card application on smartphones, which can replace, for those who wish, the small green card, he believes.

Three-quarters of benefit fraud attributable to professionals

The IGAS/IGF report itself takes a more positive view, considering in particular that the merger could resolve “recurring difficulties” on the attachment of minor children, and recommends a detailed study of the technical feasibility and opportunity of the project.

The merger of the Vitale card and identity card would make it possible in particular to combat identity fraud, where one person uses another’s card. But this identity fraud is “residual in number of cases detected (…) and going up”recalls the IGAS/IGF report.

In fact, three-quarters of frauds involving benefits from the Health Insurance Fund are frauds committed by professionals. The remaining quarter is indeed attributable to users, but the two most important items – fraud in daily allowances (sick leave) and fraud in complementary health insurance – do not involve the Vitale card. The Court of Auditors assesses the annual amount of fraud relating to health insurance “between 3.5 and 4.6 billion euros”.