The rate of reimbursement of medicines by the Social Security will drop by 5% next year, as will the coverage of medical consultations, announced the Minister of Health Genevieve Darrieussecq on Monday in the Senate.
The "moderation ticket", most often the responsibility of the complementary health insurance, "will only change by 5%" for medical consultations while "it was potentially possible to increase it by 10%", but "in addition (that) on medicines will increase by 5%", she declared at the opening of the debates on the draft law on financing Social Security for 2025.
These reimbursements, which do not appear in the text but will be enacted by ministerial decree, will result in a "transfer to complementary health insurance" the amount of which "has been reduced from 1.1 billion to 900 million euros," she specified.
The government's initial plan was to reduce the cost of medical consultations from 70% to 60%, which will therefore in future be reimbursed at 65%. For medication, the three existing reimbursement rates (65%, 30% and 15%) would a priori be reduced by the same proportion.
In addition, to achieve a savings target of "5 billion euros" on health expenditure, "we are also considering price reductions for health products for 1.2 billion euros", as well as "efficiency measures in hospitals" for 600 million and also on city care for 600 million, added Ms Darrieussecq.
Furthermore, the Minister of Health confirmed a "slippage" in spending on medicines this year, "estimated at 1.2 billion euros", which the government intends to limit after a "dialogue with manufacturers in order to find compensation mechanisms".
The financial contribution of pharmaceutical laboratories, via the sector's "safeguard clause", would only be "activated in the event of failure of the approach", she assured.
His colleague from Public Accounts, Laurent Saint-Martin, then specified that the "different levers" under study should make it possible to "reduce to 200 million euros the overrun compared to the trajectory presented" in the Social Security budget for 2025.
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