Why conventioning is essential for patients
21.11.2025For a fair, coherent and solidarity-based healthcare system
The convention between doctors and the National Health Fund (CNS) is one of the pillars of the Luxembourg healthcare system.
Thanks to this agreement, every patient — regardless of income — can consult a doctor or receive hospital treatment under the same conditions, at the same price, and with the same quality of care.
For a fair, coherent and solidarity-based healthcare system
The convention between doctors and the National Health Fund (CNS) is one of the pillars of the Luxembourg healthcare system.
Thanks to this agreement, every patient — regardless of income — can consult a doctor or receive hospital treatment under the same conditions, at the same price, and with the same quality of care.
Generalised conventioning ensures that all medical services are governed by official and transparent tariffs. Patients know in advance how much they will have to pay, and the CNS reimburses according to the same rules for everyone.
It is a principle of solidarity and equal access that has been at the heart of the Luxembourg model for decades.
Without conventioning, the risk of a two-tier healthcare system
The termination of the agreement between the AMMD and the CNS opens the door to a dangerous scenario: a system in which doctors could freely set their own prices, without regulation or reimbursement guarantees.
In such a model, only patients who can afford higher fees would have rapid access to certain treatments or specialists.
Others would risk waiting much longer — or even giving up medical care because of the cost.
This would be the beginning of a two-tier healthcare system, an unfair model in which financial status determines the quality and speed of medical care. It would represent a major setback for patients’ rights in Luxembourg.
Preserving solidarity and cohesion in the system
Conventioning is not only about tariffs — it is a contract of trust between doctors, patients and the healthcare system.
It makes it possible to:
- guarantee the same coverage for all insured people,
- ensure continuity of care between outpatient services and hospitals,
- avoid fragmentation of the health system,
- maintain homogeneous quality and safety of care throughout the country.
Without this framework, the system could split into profitable private structures on one side and public structures in difficulty on the other — as has happened in other countries where commercial logic has taken precedence.
The patient’s interest must remain central
Reforms to the healthcare system are necessary and legitimate, but they must be developed with all stakeholders, in a spirit of dialogue and responsibility.
The objective must always remain the same: to offer every patient equal, safe and high-quality access to medical care.
Conventioning is the guarantee that medicine remains a public service based on solidarity, and not a market driven by profitability.
This is why it is essential to preserve and strengthen the convention framework — to protect today’s patients and the generations to come.