Antibiotics, condoms… What will change for patients in 2024 – L’Express

A new “Secu” budget which puts in place several medical measures announced or tested for several months. We summarize the main changes that should change the daily lives of the French.

Among these measures, several of them aim to avoid drug shortages, experienced in winter 2022 and also expected this year. Thus, in the event of stock shortages, the delivery of single medications in pharmacies may be made compulsory, by order. Pharmacies will then have to deliver “the quantity adapted” to the patient’s needs rather than a whole box, the uneaten tablets of which end up expiring in a cupboard.

This idea had already been mentioned in September by the Minister of Health, with the idea of ​​reducing waste while allowing more stocks to treat the sick during winter epidemics. This system must also be able to be put in place for certain health products in shortage, such as dressings, details the daily life The echoes.

A unit sale in pharmacies which can also apply to the most prescribed tablets in France: antibiotics. While this type of care is usually delivered by prescription, the 2024 Social Security budget plans to authorize the sale of certain antibiotics in pharmacies, including pill by pill.

A possible device “in the event of angina or urinary infection”, specifies The echoes, in particular to reduce the risk of stock shortages. These two pathologies are in fact treated with a popular antibiotic, amoxicillin, subject to a shortage in winter 2022. This access will however be limited, to avoid antibiotic resistance: the government will be able to ask pharmacists to do a rapid test for diagnostic orientation (TROD) before selling an antibiotic.

The 2024 Social Security budget also provides for the reimbursement under conditions of reusable periodic protection, that is to say panties and menstrual cups. This measure will concern people under 26 and those benefiting from complementary solidarity health insurance. They should thus be reimbursed “up to 60% in 2024”, reports the newspaper The echoes. The panties and cuts concerned must nevertheless be validated by the National Health Security Agency (ANSES), according to the economic daily.

Another concerning measure for young French people: the generalization of free condoms in pharmacies and without prescriptions for all people under 26 years old. The text voted on Monday enshrines this system into law, already in place since January 1, 2023. Those under 18 only have to give their age, while those aged 18-25 must present their vital card, detailed Europe 1 at the beginning of the year.

The medical lives of the French will also change throughout their lives from 2024: the law sets up a new schedule of preventive health appointments. Clearly, each insured person will have to take stock of several health professionals “at key ages of life, free of charge and without advance payment”, specifies the website of the Ministry of Health : between 18 and 25 years old, 45 and 50 years old, 60 to 65 years old then 70 to 75 years old.

These small assessments of 30 to 45 minutes should be carried out with doctors, nurses, midwives and pharmacists. A measure validated after an experiment since the beginning of November in Hauts-de-France.

Another change concerns the rules surrounding sick leave for workers. In this text, the government strengthens the control powers of companies: the medical inspector mandated by the employer will be able to suspend the payment of the patient’s compensation, if he considers that the sick leave is unjustified. A decision which may be re-examined by the health insurance fund.

The text also limits the duration of stops prescribed by teleconsultation to three days, with a few exceptions such as those granted by the attending physician. A desire by the Borne government to fight against the increase in expenses linked to sick leave.

In terms of care, the law is also catching up with the French delay in the treatment of pain and anxiety: the 2024 Social Security budget grants a “temporary status” of five years to medical cannabis to treat this type of pathologies. A temporary authorization of this product, pending a green light for its marketing by the European authorities.

The medical use of this plant with well-known psychotropic and therapeutic effects has already been the subject of experimentation in France since 2021. Medical cannabis is also authorized in around twenty European countries, including Switzerland, Belgium and the ‘Italy.

In detail, the 2024 Social Security budget will also extend “the obligation of vaccination against infections that can give rise to meningitis”, reports The echoes. A fatal disease in some cases. Today, only vaccination against meningococcus is compulsory, recalls the Institut Pasteur website.

Although this micro-organism remains the major cause of serious meningitis, it is only one of the many bacteria or fungi causing acute forms of the disease. This broader vaccination, proposed by the Senate, should apply at the beginning of 2025 “at the latest”, specifies the economic daily. It will have to respond in particular to the explosion in cases of meningitis in recent months.

The law also seeks to better treat certain pathologies in pregnant women. First, it is setting up a three-year trial of a care pathway dedicated to postpartum depression, which affects 10 to 20% of mothers in France. according to the Vidal health dictionary.

But the text also attacks a little-known virus: cytomegalovirus. The text thus makes systematic screening of pregnant women for this virus, which can affect the development of the fetus if it is contracted by the mother. If not treated, the pathogen poses a risk of causing “long-lasting and disabling after-effects” for the child. This concerns around 300 pregnancies per year in France, specifies the Vidal dictionary.

Among the rest of the relevant health measures in this 2024 budget, we also note two announcements. For two years and on an experimental basis, Health Insurance will be able to reimburse adapted physical activity sessions for cancer patients. The choice of this patient population is, however, controversial, indicates The echoes : this measure had however “already been decided” for other diseases such as diabetes, “without being implemented”.

Finally, the law adopted on Monday seeks to encourage patients who require medical transport to travel in groups: those who refuse to share a light medical vehicle or an approved taxi with another patient, without a valid medical reason, will have to advance the costs and will not will be reimbursed only on the basis of the price of shared transport. A desire to reduce costs by generalizing this medical carpooling.