“Empower yourself” the French: this is the argument put forward by the Head of State, Emmanuel Macron, to defend the doubling of medical deductibles, these sums remaining the responsibility of patients when they buy medicines or consult a doctor . Questioned on this sensitive subject by a journalist on Tuesday January 16 during his televised intervention, Mr. Macron clearly announced that he was in favor of this savings lever on health spending.
End of suspense? The executive has been procrastinating for six months on a measure affecting the purchasing power of the French, in a context of increasingly difficult access to care and a persistent shortage of medicines.
“When I see what our compatriots can spend on telephone plans, daily life… To think that we are going to go from 50 cents to 1 euro for a box of medicines, I don’t have the feeling that we are committing a terrible crime”, he said. Fifty euro cents is the amount not reimbursed for each box of medicine set in 2008, under the five-year term of Nicolas Sarkozy, and which has not changed since.
“That doesn’t shock me”, “this is a good measure”, continued Mr. Macron, while this avenue put forward by Bercy, in June 2023, should make it possible to generate 800 million euros in savings. The head of state affirmed that the ” ceiling “ of 50 euros per year per patient, which exists until now, should be maintained, which should allow people with long-term illnesses – in other words, chronically ill people – not to be penalized by this increase in the “remainder to charge “. Before his resignation in December 2023, former Minister of Health Aurélien Rousseau had quantified the impact of doubling deductibles at an additional 17 euros, on average, per person per year.
The amount may seem modest, but it is no less controversial: the doubling of medical deductibles has been denounced, for months, as a “sickness tax” in the ranks of caregivers and patients, but also on the left of the Hemicycle, where the deputies continued to demand, this fall, during the examination of the Social Security budget, that the government lay down its cards and be transparent on this measure.
Fight against medical deserts
It remains to be seen how it will be implemented within the new government, where Catherine Vautrin has taken the head of a large ministry bringing together health, work and solidarity. “Without a dedicated minister”, regret those involved in healthcare. The name of Agnès Pannier-Runacher, formerly Minister for Energy Transition, is being circulated to take on the post of Minister for Health.
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