After pensions and public debt, the health insurance deficit will also widen in 2024. It should reach 11.4 billion euros, according to the institution’s annual report, consulted by L’Express before it was submitted to the government.
Bad news: since 2020, when the deficit suddenly increased from 1.5 to 30 billion euros due to Covid-19, spending had continued to decline. Health Insurance expected this to be the case, but the increase in interest rates at which France borrows has put an end to the momentum.
Of course, the increase is limited. It is capped at 300 million. But it freezes the result of the National Health Insurance Fund at eight times its deficit before the health crisis. A chasm destined to grow: driven by the aging of the population, health care costs are set to explode in the coming years.
In 2023, chronic diseases, mainly related to age, already represented 59% of expenditure, or more than 112 billion euros. 24 million French people, a third of those insured, are concerned.
Health insurance plans to save 1.56 billion in 2025. That will not be enough, she warns. As with pensions, it is in reality the entire system that is threatened. The issue, which has received little attention in political debates, deserves special attention: a new poorly put together reform, which would simply consist of removing rights from insured persons, would only add anger to anger.
Health insurance has not been mistaken. It estimates that it can find 80 million euros on the costs related to chronic pathologies. Not by treating less, but better, it says. Many of these conditions are still only treated when they have become emergencies, for example. This is the paradox of the situation: blindly cutting expenses would only increase them.