Patients can prepare themselves to have to open their wallets a little more. During his press conference, Emmanuel Macron made few new announcements in terms of health, while medical deserts continue to widen, and hospital difficulties continue to deepen. The President was content to once again rule out any regulation of the installation of doctors, and to recall the “course” set in recent years: delegation of tasks to paramedics, recruitment of medical assistants, access service to care which should soon reach “100%” of the population. The hospital workers, for their part, were referred to the salary increases and the resources released within the framework of Ségur de la santé. The Head of State simply insisted on the need to better help non-medical personnel find accommodation in large cities.
To relieve congestion in emergencies, the only real novelty concerns the “responsibility of those who use these services unduly”. The President thus expressed his desire to apply a “remaining charge to people who go to the emergency room for a small injury”. A measure which promises to be difficult to apply for several reasons. First, “non-urgent” and therefore inappropriate visits to emergencies are in reality not that numerous: a study published in 2019 showed that they would concern only 6% of uses of these services. This reform would therefore have a limited scope… for an implementation which will undoubtedly involve a real gas factory, because establishing the criteria to precisely define this abusive use promises to be delicate. Such a measure could also potentially discourage patients from consulting when they really need it. They then risk finding themselves in a much more serious situation… and much more costly for the community.
Doubling of medical deductibles
Such an additional burden would also be unfair, since it would mainly fall on patients without health insurance, unless we imagine prohibiting supplementary health insurance providers from reimbursing them. This is already the case for the medical franchises established by Roselyne Bachelot, when she was Minister of Health under Nicolas Sarkozy in 2008. After several months of procrastination, Emmanuel Macron decided this evening: these franchises will be significantly increased. “Doubling the deductible on medicines from 0.5 cents to one euro is not a crime,” he said. While specifying that patients with long-term illnesses (i.e. suffering from chronic illnesses, cardiovascular illnesses, cancers, diabetes, etc.) will be “protected” by a ceiling of 50 euros per year.
An announcement which will not fail to provoke a reaction from patient associations. A doubling of deductibles will by definition bring them to this ceiling more quickly than today. However, it is difficult to see how these patients, suffering from serious pathologies, would be “protected” when they will have to pay 50 euros out of their pocket each year… Already on the table last year, this project, widely criticized by the unions of liberal doctors and by the opposition parties, was ultimately not included in the social security finance law for 2024. It is now up to Gabriel Attal and Catherine Vautrin to have this measure adopted, which should bring in 800 million euros. euros of savings.
While the President ultimately mentioned health very little in his introductory remarks, the overall tone of his press conference is sure to worry players in the sector a little more. After the promises of the Covid years, the page on investments and major reforms in this area which is of particular concern to the French now seems to have turned.