Soon two euros not reimbursed at the doctor’s office: the doubling of the fixed contribution (the rest payable by the insured) on medical consultations will come into force on May 15, and not in June as initially mentioned, we learned from health insurance.
Faced with the deterioration of Social Security accounts, the government decided in January to make patients pay a little more for their healthcare consumption, by increasing the portion not reimbursed by Health Insurance and supplementary health insurance.
A first part of the measure came into force on March 31: the “medical franchise” Doubled. Socially insured people pay one euro out of their pocket for each box of medicine or paramedical procedure, compared to 50 cents previously, and four euros per medical transport instead of two.
Up to 800 million savings per year
The doubling of the “flat rate participation”, this remaining responsibility of policyholders for medical consultations, radiology and biology examinations, was initially announced around June. It will finally come into force on May 15, Health Insurance announced to Agence France-Presse (AFP), confirming a information from Parisian. From this date, the remaining cost for these services will amount to two euros, compared to one euro today. According to the Ministry of Health, these measures should enable savings of 800 million euros per year for Social Security funds.
In the event of accumulation of procedures in the same day, the amount cannot, however, exceed four euros of remaining liability per day for medical procedures and eight euros for medical transport.
So that the people with the greatest need for care are not penalized, the two annual ceilings – one for deductibles, the other for fixed contributions – are maintained at 50 euros each.
Excesses and flat-rate reimbursements are not applicable to minors, women on maternity leave and beneficiaries of complementary solidarity health insurance (C2S), the latter have particularly modest incomes.