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Lecture 3 min.
In France, donating blood or getting vaccinated is a free choice. But the question of the financial incentive – aimed at encouraging the French to seek treatment or to donate their blood – is often (re) put on the carpet.
Getting paid to donate blood or get vaccinated. If the idea seems absurd, it could nevertheless prove to be the key to reducing the number of patients. Jean Philippe Plançon, president of the French Association against Peripheral Neuropathies (AFNP) reports on these issues in a forum.
Donations: the culture of free donations in France
In France, the principle of free donation is laid down in the civil code and taken up in the social security code and the public health code.
It guarantees donors and the people accompanying them the reimbursement of the costs incurred as well as the coverage of the expenses of care by the health establishments in charge of the collection.
But it is also a way of avoiding mercantile excesses. Giving blood or donating organs is a gift of oneself – and not a marketed and financed approach.
But in fact, even if the concept of free is important in France, it has difficulty in being diffused and transmitted to the youngest.
“Education is the key. But this takes time and requires human resources. However, no one wants to take that time anymore. Conclusion: today we are facing a global immobilization. People don’t want to give anymore”, alert Jean-Philippe Plancon.
“The collection system is bankrupt”
While tens of thousands of French patients are waiting for their blood or plasma infusion to survive, in France only 130,000 citizens make at least one plasma donation per year.
Our country is therefore a very bad student compared to neighboring countries: in Germany or Austria, nearly a third of adults are regular blood and/or plasma donors (compared to 3.6% in France in 2020, source EFS). A disaster for the sick, according to the president of the Association.
“The collection system is bankrupt. We can no longer collect blood and plasma, we don’t even talk about it. Another problem: young people are those who give the least, proof of their lack of interest in donation. The time has therefore come to consider that ethics is not a relative value”, relates the president of the Association.
According to Jean-Philippe Plançon, we would be faced with a “breathless” system that deserves to be reinvented, like the solutions found by our neighboring countries. In Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic and Hungary, donation volumes are significantly higher than in the rest of Europe.
“Why not be as inventive as other countries? Blood and plasma donation is subject to compensation in other neighboring countries, such as vouchers, gifts… Australia, a country completely self-sufficient in plasma, has even created a brand, Lifeblood, to stimulate donations made by donors. It is certainly a marketing move, but it is useful marketing. So why not consider it ?”, adds Jean Philippe Plançon.
Financial incentive, compensation, education… Where to put the cursor?
This financial or material incentive strategy could even be declined in favor of vaccines, according to some experts. Swiss researchers have even recently demonstrated that the financial incentive in public health “did not cause side effects in the medium term“.
The majority of interlocutors share the finding of insufficient public health education and of a culture of giving that needs to be revived. Nevertheless, does this situation deserve to call into question the principle of free donation which characterizes our health system? Are we talking about compensation or real remuneration?… Beyond the observation, the choice of strategies to be implemented diverges.
