“The deficit in the health insurance branch will probably be higher than the 11.4 billion euros expected by the Social Security accounts commission in June.” This is what Thomas Fatôme, general director of the National Health Insurance Fund (CNAM), estimated in an interview published this Sunday, September 8 by The Echoes. After recording a deficit of 11.1 billion euros last year, the health branch of Social Security is widening the gap further, which should, according to Thomas Fatôme, “remain at a historically very high level”.
A hot topic
This is why, throughout the interview, the Director General of the CNAM, did not give up: if several burning issues await Michel Barnier’s government, the Social Security deficit must also be put on the table. “This is a major concern that the next government and Parliament will have to address quickly,” he declared. An issue that is all the more relevant since the 2025 State budget must be submitted to Parliament on October 1 at the latest.
And to remedy this situation, the Director General of the CNAM supports several ideas. Among the savings avenues defended, a new system of compensation for work stoppages is at the top of the list. The cause is the expenses related to work stoppages, which now reach 16 billion euros in 2024, more than a billion more than last year. “It is above all a question of ensuring that resources are used well and of reacting when there are more dynamic expenses,” he confided to the Echoes.
A well-crafted action plan
In order to control the cost of sick leave, the institution intends to act on several fronts between now and December. Starting with the implementation of reinforced monitoring of supporting documents for long-term absences. “We will contact all insured persons who have been off work for more than eighteen months to […] see [s’il] is justified, see if there is a resumption of activity initiated and possibly discuss the implementation of therapeutic part-time work,” said Thomas Fatôme.
And the National Health Insurance Fund does not intend to stop there to get things back on track. 7,000 general practitioners, known for prescribing many sick leave orders, will also be contacted to “exchange their practices and see if there is a way to better control the situation”. New, more secure sick leave certificates should also see the light of day.
Beyond thinking about compensation that would reduce the deficit in the health insurance branch, the CNAM also plans to make the system “fairer”. “Is it normal that today an employee is less well covered because he does not have six months of seniority? Is it normal that the waiting days are mostly covered for employees in large companies but not in small ones?”, the CEO asked. So many issues on the table that will soon try to find their solution.