Health spending is in the crosshairs of the executive. In search of savings for its next budget, the government is opening the door to a probable increase in medical deductibles. “The track being studied is to increase the current deductible by 50 cents, “while taking into account the most difficult situations” among patients, said, this Friday, August 25, on France 2, the new Minister of Public Accounts Thomas Cazenave. “What we want is to guarantee the financing of Social Security” and, “indeed, we are trying to save money”, added the former deputy for Gironde.
Since the spring, the government has been preparing minds for this probable rise. The “virtually free” drugs can lead to “disempower the patient”, had thus judged in June, during the Assizes of public finances, the Minister of the Economy Bruno le Maire. Invited on Wednesday from France Bleu for her political return, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne confirmed that the remaining charge of 50 cents on medicine boxes was “part of the tracks” for budgetary savings in 2024, recalling in passing that France consumes “more drugs” than its neighbors (spending increased by 4% between 2021 and 2022).
To build its future Social Security budget, in a context of inflation, the government will crescendo on this doubling project. What exactly are we talking about? Created in 2008 under the presidency of Nicolas Sarkozy, the medical deductible has since remained unchanged: it amounts to 50 cents per box of medicines and per paramedical act (physiotherapist, nursing care, etc.), or two euros per medical transport, with an amount capped at 50 euros per year and per insured, beyond which everything is reimbursed.
A potential gain of several hundred million euros
According to scenarios unveiled this summer by The echoes, the government wants to double the deductible, bringing it to 1 euro per box or act. This increase could also concern the “flat-rate contribution” which applies to the doctor, which would increase from 1 to 2 euros, another envelope also capped at 50 euros annually.
It would also consider extending the franchise to medical devices such as dressings or crutches, which were previously exempt. The deductible of two euros per medical transport should remain unchanged. Finally, a possible doubling of the annual ceilings would be under study. The potential gain amounts to several hundred million euros, up to 1.5 billion if the ceilings are raised, according to Bercy, which seeks to reduce the public deficit by 2027.
This project, politically sensitive, and already contested by several associations of patients and doctors, must know a final arbitration of the executive by the presentation of the 2024 budget at the end of September.