Faced with the slippage of public finances, the government is looking for savings in all directions, and health is no exception. It’s official: doctor’s visits will soon be less reimbursed. As of May 15, the amount of the fixed contribution – this patient contribution which cannot be reimbursed by either Social Security or mutual insurance – will double from 1 to 2 euros for each consultation, radiological examination or biological analysis. That is, 15 days earlier than planned, the date initially announced by the government was set for “early June”.
With the consequence for patients of an increase in the out-of-pocket cost. However, with 8.7% of health expenses having to be paid out of pocket, the remainder payable by French patients remains one of the lowest in Europe: it is 14.4% on average in the EU, and reached 33.3% in Greece, 29% in Portugal and 21.9% in Italy, according to figures from Drees.
For Social Security, on the other hand, the measure should enable savings of more than 400 million euros over a full year. Presented last fall in the Social Security budget, it was finally taken by the government by decree. A possibility remained open to increase the fixed contribution to 3 euros, but the council of the Union of Health Insurance Funds (Uncam) decided to remain on a doubling, according to Le Parisien.
After the increase in the franchise on boxes of medicine, from 0.50 to 1 euro on March 31 – the amount cannot, however, exceed a ceiling of 50 euros per year -, this measure aims to control the increase in health expenses . On Monday, the Ondam alert committee, an organization responsible for sounding the alarm in the event of expenditure slippage, once again warned the government about the surge in health expenditure, expected to increase by 3.2% in 2024 to 254.7 billion euros.
On the other hand, Bruno Le Maire assured that the government would not touch the care of long-term illnesses (ALD). “We do not want to touch ALD”, which are “an essential pillar of solidarity”, indicated the Minister of Economy and Finance at the end of March in Ouest-France. This option had however been mentioned a few weeks earlier. Reimbursed 100% by Social Security, ALD concerns 13 million people in France and represents two thirds of reimbursements by Health Insurance.