2023-09-10 14:04:29
Published on September 8, 2023 at 3:21 p.m. Updated on September 10, 2023 at 2:04 p.m.
The French are going to pay a little more for their medicines and their doctor’s visits. This Friday, the government confirmed that it was considering doubling the deductible on medicines but also the contribution paid by patients for each doctor’s consultation.
The fixed contribution requested from patients who consult a general practitioner or specialist “will undoubtedly also change, probably increasing to 2 euros”, confirmed the Minister of Health, Aurélien Rousseau, this Friday on Sud Radio.
No raising of the ceiling
Anxious to make savings on health spending, the executive has been suggesting for several weeks that it intends to increase deductibles and packages, in particular the 50 cent deductible existing today on boxes of medicine.
These measures must be specified in the next draft Social Security budget expected at the end of September. “We are not touching the ceiling of 50 euros” per year per person, however assured the minister.
According to our information, the doubling of deductibles and the fixed contribution – also applied today to radiological examinations and medical biology analyzes – should make it possible to free up 700 to 800 million euros over the full year.
And this, without raising the ceiling of 50 euros per year per patient which applies to these two systems and should make it possible to protect the most vulnerable, particularly the chronically ill. If this ceiling were doubled, the return for public finances would reach 1.5 billion euros, but the government considers this point too sensitive.
Financing hospitals and general medicine
The executive justifies this contribution of the French by the surge in spending on medicines and compensation for work stoppages. This would require generating even more revenue as “we have expenses that we must incur for the hospital and for general medicine,” explained Aurélien Rousseau.
The government has promised to improve the remuneration of paramedics and doctors working nights and weekends in hospitals and nursing homes. He also intends to relaunch “as quickly as possible” negotiations with private doctors on the agreement linking them to Social Security and defining the price of consultations.
The basic consultation with the general practitioner must increase from 25 to 26.50 euros this fall. An insufficient level for the unions which hope to obtain more.
The executive intends to take advantage of these discussions to try to better control medication and sick leave prescriptions, explained Aurélien Rousseau. In passing, the minister pointed out the fact that many French people would go to pharmacies to get medicines that they already have in their cupboards.
Rest limited charge
These remarks promise to ruffle the liberal doctors. These are headwinds against the checks recently launched by Health Insurance on work stoppage prescriptions and are very critical of the plan to increase deductibles.
In its defense, the government will undoubtedly not fail to point out that within the OECD, France is the country where the amount remaining payable by patients receiving care and medication is the lowest – when we takes into account the amounts reimbursed by complementary health insurance.
In total, the remaining liability is estimated by INSEE in 2021 at 1% of gross household disposable income, underlined a recent report submitted to Matignon on the drug.
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