2023-08-20 18:06:00
In order to save money, the government is considering increasing the medical deductible as well as the flat-rate contribution. A worrying measure.
By Nathan Joubioux for Le Point
© JEAN-MARC BARRERE / Hans Lucas / Hans Lucas via AFP
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SHealing could now cost more. From 2024, the medical deductible and the flat-rate contribution could double, so that the State can save money. Announced in June by Bruno Le Maire, Minister of the Economy, this measure, which would fall within the framework of the Social Security financing bill (PLFSS) 2024, worries unions, professionals and patients, who fear a decline in purchasing power, explains The Parisian.
A measure that penalizes the most modest
Bruno Le Maire’s idea is therefore, on the one hand, to increase the medical deductible, which has not changed since 2008. Currently, when buying a box of medicines reimbursed by Social Security, 50 euro cents remain payable by the patient. The amount is the same for paramedical interventions (nursing care or physiotherapy sessions). The deductible reaches 2 euros for medical transport.
In the PLFSS 2024, this deductible would be doubled, according to The echoes. “If the measure goes to the end, we would be in double, triple, quadruple trouble. The French can no longer find a general practitioner, they struggle to get an appointment with a specialist… And now they are financially punished! Plague Gérard Raymond, the president of France Assos Santé, the largest federation of health users, for whom the government would sanction the fact of being sick.
READ ALSOPublic finances: how Bercy wants to reduce the deficitThe doubling of the medical deductible could also be accompanied by the doubling of the “flat-rate contribution”. For each consultation with the doctor, an X-ray examination or medical analyses, 1 euro is not reimbursed. Agnès Giannotti, boss of MG France, the main union of general practitioners, is upwind against a measure that would make the most modest “toast”: “These patients who are just above the thresholds to benefit from state aid but who have chronic illnesses, with medication to be taken daily and regular appointments with their attending physician. »
But this decision, which makes certain members of the majority cringe, is far from being recorded.
The increase in the ceiling under discussion
Doubling the medical deductible would save less than a billion euros per year, according to Bercy. Unless the ceiling doesn’t move. Because, currently, the accumulation of the ceilings remaining payable by the patient cannot go beyond 50 euros per year. If exceeded, it is fully refunded. “If this ceiling does not increase, the impact on patients should actually be minimal,” said Philippe Besset, president of the first union of community pharmacists. According to him, it is this ceiling that must be closely monitored.
READ ALSOHospital management: the Espic, symbol of the inefficiency of the StateThe Ministry of Public Accounts is therefore studying two solutions: increasing the deductible, but not the ceiling, or increasing both. If the deductible does not concern minors, pregnant women over six months and beneficiaries of AME (State Medical Aid), the bill could be steep for people with long-term illness. “For them, if we double the deductible, the bill can quickly reach 100 euros per year”, protests a union official who sits on the board of the Cnam (National Health Insurance Fund).
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