The Luxembourg Association of Doctors and Dentists (AMMD) has issued a strongly worded statement in response to last week’s Quadripartite Committee meeting, warning that healthcare professionals must not be made to shoulder the burden of the country’s deteriorating health insurance finances.
“The CNS’s financial situation is not good”, the AMMD said in its press release (LUX), referring to the National Health Fund (CNS). “Neither doctors, dentists, nor their patients are responsible for this deficit, and they should not be the ones paying for it.”
The warning comes just days after the Quadripartite Committee confirmed that Luxembourg’s health and maternity insurance system is facing a projected record deficit of €25.8 million for 2024, with that figure expected to balloon to €132.6 million in 2025 – equivalent to 16.5% of annual expenditures.
The committee also warned that without corrective measures, legal reserve thresholds could be breached as early as 2027.
In its press release, the AMMD accused the CNS of contributing to its own structural deficit, citing a surge in operational costs and what it described as poor internal cohesion: “The CNS does not speak with one voice. The State has 40% representation, employees and employers 30% each.”
Here, the AMMD warns that the views of these stakeholders are often fundamentally at odds.
The statement also criticises the lack of progress on healthcare reforms, highlighting stalled legislation that would have allowed new forms of professional medical organisation. The AMMD stresses that they have yet to be informed of the exact reason why a law co-developed with the Medical College (Collège Médical) was withdrawn at the start of this legislative period, further calling for the proposal to be revived “in this form or another”.
The doctors’ association further argued that strengthening outpatient care – such as allowing doctors’ practices to carry out diagnostic imaging or minor surgeries – could ease hospital pressure and reduce overall costs. This has been a “longstanding demand”, the statement reads.
The group was also sharply critical of the 2018 hospital law, calling it a “bad law” with a “bad amendment” that was passed “in extremis”" in 2023 and has “proven not to work”.
The statement ends with a political call to action, warning that without decisive steps, the healthcare system risks burdening patients with higher costs: “But simply taking money from people’s pockets to make up for past political failures is certainly not the right way.”
Echoing the urgency expressed by Health Minister Martine Deprez after the Quadripartite meeting, the AMMD concluded that if a constructive dialogue with the CNS is no longer possible, the problem becomes even more political than it already is.
Deprez had stated at the Quadripartite meeting that “urgent action is needed”, promising that a list of concrete measures to restore financial balance would be ready by autumn 2025.
