Increase in medical deductibles: why patients, professionals and unions oppose it
The decrees written on the sly this summer to double the out-of-pocket costs for patients are crystallizing discontent. In Paris hospitals, this is one of the reasons for the strikes this fall.
By Vincent Vérier and Erwan BenezetHealth costs are on the rise. In the middle of the summer holidays, the government sent draft decrees to the social security funds concerning medical deductibles . These measures will significantly increase the amounts remaining to be paid by patients, since they cannot be reimbursed by mutual insurance companies either. "The government wants to double everything," fumes a member of the board of the National Health Insurance Fund (CNAM). "The annual ceilings, but also the deductibles on medications and those on consultations. The first was announced, not the second. They're making fun of us."
Although the increase in annual ceilings from 50 euros to 100 euros, in other words the maximum amounts left to a patient's charge for medication and consultation costs, was in the pipeline since Catherine Vautrin's intervention on July 15, the doubling of all medical deductibles came as a surprise to many.
Le Parisien
