2024-10-25 11:00:00
To reduce the public spending deficit, the government is proposing to curb health spending, which represented, in 2022, 11.9% of France’s gross domestic product (GDP), placing us in second position among countries Europeans behind Germany (12.6%). However, in euros per capita, Germany spends on average 20% more than France (4,343 euros versus 3,475 euros).
France, on the other hand, leads European countries in terms of management costs for health care financiers: 6% of health spending, compared to 5% in Germany and 3% for the average of the countries of the Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (“Fight against waste in health systems”OECD, 2017).
Indeed, specific to France, we have dual management for each treatment, by compulsory health insurance, on the one hand, and by complementary private insurance, on the other. So much so that complementary insurance spends 7.7 billion in management fees while they reimburse 13% of care, while Social Security spends 7.5 billion in management fees while it reimburses nearly 80% of care. In other words, when an insured pays 100 euros to complementary insurance (mutualist or not), only 75 euros are used to pay for the care compared to 96 euros if he entrusts it to Social Security.
“Do better with less”
By lowering reimbursement for consultations with a doctor or midwife from 70% to 60%, the government wants to reduce public spending by transferring it to private insurance. But they will automatically pass on the increase to the amount of the premium paid by their policyholders, after an increase of 8% in 2024 already. This purely accounting measure will therefore not result in any savings for the company. It will cost policyholders more and will cause an increase in social health inequalities to the extent that the less fortunate, particularly among retirees, will be forced to downgrade the level of their health coverage.
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Conversely, the integration of mutual societies into a “Grande Sécu” reimbursing 100% of a basket of prevention and solidarity care would allow the community to save 5.4 billion euros per year, according to a report of the High Council for the Future of Health Insurance, published in January 2022 (“ Four polar scenarios for the evolution of the relationship between Social Security and supplementary health insurance “). In the absence of this major structural reform, the creation of additional insurance managed by Social Security would make it possible to “do better with less”, according to the wishes of the budget minister. Indeed, the management of compulsory health insurance and supplementary health insurance by a single financier would make it possible to eliminate unnecessary duplication of management costs.
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