Senators approve experimenting with a biometric Vitale card

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At the instigation of the rapporteur, Catherine Deroche (LR, Maine-et-Loire), the Social Affairs Committee had strongly reduced the initial ambition of the bill to transform the electronic health insurance card, known as "Vitale card", in biometric card, to fight against fraud.

The text, disapproved by the government, has almost no chance of being adopted by Parliament, unable to obtain the support of the majority LREM in the event of a review in the National Assembly.

The experiment was voted with the support of the LR group, the Centrist Union, a majority of left-wing radicals (RDSE) and the group Les Indépendants, believing that the objective of combating fraud was laudable.

The Socialists, the group CRCE and LREM voted against, denouncing a stigmatization of insured and a proposal based on a suspicion of fraud that is not currently supported by reliable data.

Some emphasized the redundancy of such an initiative at the time of the deployment of an experiment of a "e-Carte Vitale" in the Rhone and Alpes-Maritimes.

The bill was tabled in late May by Philippe Mouiller (LR, Deux-Sèvres), the chairman of the Social Affairs Committee, Alain Milon (LR, Vaucluse) and the chairman of the LR group, Bruno Retailleau (Vendée).

The initial objective was, in particular, to authorize the Minister of Social Affairs to implement a processing of personal data "enabling the registration of the digitized image of the cardholder's fingerprints".

This recording was to be accompanied by "information on the identity, sex, size and color of the holder's eyes, as well as the photograph".

Experiments for 12 months

The provisions finally adopted authorize health insurance management bodies, designated by decree, to issue on a trial basis and for a period of 12 months a "Biometric Life Card" integrating "the digitized image of the holder's fingerprints".

The health insurance funds concerned will have to experiment with the use of this card "by insured persons and health professionals and the provision of equivalent services" to those of the classic Vitale card.

"At the time of enrollment, the beneficiaries will be informed of the implementation of a dedicated data processing and procedures for exercising the rights of access and rectification provided for by the Data Protection Act", explains the senator in the explanatory memorandum.

The measure is accompanied by a report to the Parliament, drawn up by the health insurance funds and GIE Sesam-Vitale, 2 months before the end of the experiment, which will have to make "in particular report of the evolution of the figures of fraud in obtaining rights ".

They adopted an amendment by Nathalie Goulet (Centrist Union, Orne) to systematically correlate the validity of the Vitale card with the duration of the rights of its holder.

The unfavorable government

Christelle Dubos, Secretary of State to the Minister of Solidarity and Health, expressed the government's negative position on the text.

She noted that while the fight against fraud was a "major objective" of the government, several provisions were already in place to prevent document fraud, the obtaining and circulation of fraudulent Vitale cards, such as the existence of a list opposition of these cards and the inter-scheme portal which prevents the creation of a new card for an insured person for failure to return or invalidate the old card.

Christelle Dubos recalled the "sensitive" nature (in the meaning of the European data protection regulation -RGPD) of the data processing necessary for a Biometric Life Card, which would require authorization from the CNIL, while the "necessity and proportionality "The collection of biometric characteristics was far from obvious.

She went on to describe the extent of the means to be implemented, the cost of such a measure could exceed one billion euros, according to the elements transmitted to the health insurance to the rapporteur, Catherine Deroche, and detailed in her report. .

The renewal of the current card stock would take 20 years, at the rate of 3.6 million cards per year, and would require "massive hiring" of personnel to train, at a cost of 400 million euros. The overall cost of manufacturing these cards is estimated at 900 million euros while their unit cost would be doubled.

At the same time, health professionals should equip themselves with adequate hardware and software to check their patients' fingerprints (at an estimated cost of € 60 million), which would also be a disruptive element in caregiver relationships. and cared for.

Even limited to an experiment of two boxes, the scale of the means to be implemented would be too high, indicated in substance Christelle Dubos.

Launched in 1998, the smart card distributed to the insured to allow the teletransmission of their sheets of care was modified in 2004. The "Vitale 2 card", whose technical architecture has been revised and which includes a photo of the insured, has been distributed since spring 2007.

The idea of ​​a Biometric Vitale card to fight against fraud was notably promoted by former President Nicolas Sarkozy during the campaign for his re-election in 2012 and by the President of the National Rally (RN), Marine Le Pen, during the campaign for the 2017 presidential election.

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