Medicines, consultations, transport: here is when and by how much the amount of your out-of-pocket cost will increase

La somme à la charge du patient va passer de 50 centimes à 1 euro. ILLUSTRATION MIDI LIBRE – NASSIRA BELMEKKI

À compter de fin mars, la somme à la charge du patient sur une boîte de médicaments ou les actes paramédicaux va passer de 50 centimes à 1 euro. 

It's doubling of medical deductibles –  that is to say the amount remaining payable by the patient which is not reimbursed by health insurance or complementary health insurance – will be for "end March", according to the wishes of the government. This Monday, January 22, the Ministries of Economy and Health indicated that they had launched the process. 

As of next spring, the deductible on boxes of medicines and paramedical procedures will double and go from 50 cents to 1 euro. 

That on medical transport will also be doubled to 4 euros, specifies Franceinfo, as well as flat-rate contributions on consultations and medical procedures, and on medical biology examinations and analysis, at 2 euros, from the month of June. 

800 million euros savings

The government had been discussing the measure for months, but it did not want to decide during the debates on the 2024 Health budget. The choice had been justified by Emmanuel Macron Tuesday January 16 during his press conference at the Elysée. 

Recalling that there was no “magic money”, and that, if it is not the consumer who pays, it is the taxpayer", the head of state had estimated that he did not have "the feeling that we were committing a terrible crime" and judged that this increase in the remainder was a "good measure" of accountability of socially insured persons. 

According to government estimates communicated in the fall, during the debates, the measure should allow Social Security funds to realize 800 million euros in & #39;economy.

The executive also recalls that deductibles and lump sum reimbursements are not applicable to minors, women who benefit from maternity insurance.  and "to beneficiaries of complementary solidarity health insurance", with particularly modest incomes.

Criticisms of patient associations and unions

This announcement did not fail to provoke discontent among patient associations. Gérard Raymond, president of France Asso Santé, denounces on Franceinfo a “double penalty: being sick and paying twice as much”. He even describes this measure as a "stabbing".  

Tackling franchises "is totally unequal" and amounts to "making the most modest, the sickest pay" says for her part the president of the MG France doctors' union, Agnès Giannotti, saying she fears that some  " renounce care".