Authorities recommend that parents give their children a self-test at least once a week. A precaution that worries, already, some families. Especially since these tests are not reimbursed.
A few days before the start of the school year, it is a supply strongly recommended by the authorities: the self-tests. Tests in high demand during the holiday season, but to go to school, would you be willing to buy some?
Opinions do not really differ. “I do not agree to pay for self-tests“, says a man questioned by our team. A lady continues: “My little girl has oral problems, it is already very complicated to blow her nose. If I have to do this to her once a week, she no longer goes to school.. “Véronique, is also questioned: “I’m not interested in doing this every Sunday to my kids. It’s expensive.”
The price of a self-test can vary between 3.5 euros and 8 euros per kit. By testing their two children every Sunday, a family is expected to spend an average of 253 euros by the end of the year.
That the tests be distributed within the school framework
For Christine Mahy, president of the Belgian network for the fight against poverty, “there is a risk of discrimination in households that are weak in terms of portfolio. This new recommendation is a mistake. These tests should be free and available to all. (…) “For children, it should be done through school. That the tests be distributed within the school framework and that there be total free.”
Frank Vandenbroucke, Federal Minister of Health, justified the non-free delivery of these self-tests during the press conference on Thursday: “I would like it to be free. Federal authority is the poorest authority of all authorities in this country. “ But for the socialist, the real argument is a practical reason: “We make them available en masse in supermarkets. We buy them from 3.5 euros. We cannot set up a reimbursement system in supermarkets as exists in pharmacists. It would take a year or two of work. and administrative preparations. This is simply not possible.”
The minister recalled that people with low incomes (BIM among others) are entitled to 4 self-tests per person and per household, every two weeks, all for one euro per self-test.