This Tuesday, March 26, the Minister of the Economy said he was ready to consider all solutions to reduce the public deficit, including by limiting medical reimbursements.
Invited this Tuesday March 26 on RTL, the Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, declared himself "open to all debates" to reduce the public deficit which INSEE estimates at 5.5% of GDP in 2023. The minister does not wish to rule out any solution to achieve his objective and reviewing the reimbursement of medicines is one of these solutions. This subject had already been discussed a few months previously, notably by the President of the Republic during his press conference on January 16.
Mr. Le Maire in fact recalled that the decision to increase the exemption for medicines from 50 cents to 1 euro has already been taken. This measure is expected to be effective from March 31. He was also open to calculating reimbursement for medical expenses based on income. He stressed on RTL the need for “collective awareness of the need to make choices in our public spending”.
Regarding medicines in particular, the minister declared: "It's a way of saying medicine cannot be open bar. You see all the medicines that you accumulate in your pharmacy, it has a cost, it's you who pay, it’s the taxpayer who pays.” Bruno Le Maire explained that the aim of rethinking the medical reimbursement system is to ask “the person who is in good health and who consumes medication or who does a lot of medical analyses” to “contribute more”.
On the other hand, the Minister of the Economy assured that “people who are seriously ill” would not be penalized and would not see their reimbursements reduced. Speaking to RTL, Mr. Le Maire argued that the increase in medical deductibles brings the State more than a billion euros.
