A Health Insurance reception point, in Arras, in June 2017. PHILIPPE HUGUEN/AFP
Increase the co-payment on medical consultations, i.e. the amount remaining to be paid to patients after reimbursement from Social Security and covered by complementary health insurance. The sensitive measure of transferring more than 1 billion euros from Health Insurance to complementary insurance, to contain a widening Social Security deficit, must be debated within the framework of the financing bill for Social Security (PLFSS), the examination of which in the Chamber begins Monday October 28. This “ticket” could go from 30% today to 40% tomorrow, at the doctor or midwife.
The government has therefore chosen to transfer these health expenses to supplementary insurance, which will undoubtedly cause increases in contributions for policyholders. As was done, in 2023, by increasing the user fee on oral care.
“I am open to other options, provided they guarantee the same financial balance”said Geneviève Darrieussecq, Minister of Health, in the Tribune Sunday of October 27, saying “very attentive to the impact on the purchasing power of the most modest”. « I would also like to remind you that the increase in user fees does not impact the most vulnerable French people, that is to say the quarter of our fellow citizens benefiting from C2S, the complementary solidarity health insurance, which covers medical consultations. she clarified. Since the announcement of the measure, the government has also repeated it: people with long-term illnesses, i.e. covered 100% by Social Security for their illness, will not see any change in their reimbursements.
A simple set of communicating vases? In the ranks of specialists in the social protection system, it is emphasized: such an option is not trivial. She reopened the debate, almost as old as the « Social security”, of the sharing of roles between these two historical players in our health system. The deputies were not mistaken in speaking out, unanimously, against this transfer during the first budgetary debates in the Social Affairs Committee of the National Assembly. “It is the universality of Health Insurance that we are damaging”argued Philippe Vigier (MoDem, Eure-et-Loir), Thursday October 24.
Read also | Article reserved for our Health subscribers: the increase in co-payments, an economic option on the table, and which is the subject of debate
Add to your selections
The hybrid architecture, combining compulsory health insurance, under Social Security, and supplementary health insurance, under the market, dates back to the post-war period. Its major balances have nevertheless evolved: the share of expenses covered by Social Security, after having decreased slightly between the 1980s and 2010, has increased over the past decade to now reach 80% of the total, primarily under the effect of the increase in the number of people with long-term illness (ALD), fully covered by “Secu”. The share financed by complementary health insurance, bringing together a myriad of players (mutual societies, health insurance and provident institutions), has stabilized at around 13%, while the remainder borne by households is established. at 7%.
