ambulances will soon be less well reimbursed by Social Security

The decree was published on Saturday May 20, despite the opposition of complementary health insurance. Health insurance will reduce its coverage of non-urgent medical transport from 65% to 50%, and complementary health insurance will have to compensate for this partial reimbursement, according to this decree published in the Official Journal.

The text provides that “the contribution of the insured to the costs relating to medical transport”today within a range of “30 to 40%”will soon increase to a rate of “45 to 55%” set by Medicare. This decision will apply to so-called scheduled transport, for patients who do not benefit from an exemption (chronically ill, pregnant women, invalids, etc.).

The measure aims to “neutralize” the free of “urgent medical transport”. Private ambulances sent at the request of the Samu have indeed been 100% covered since January 1, at a cost estimated at 70 million euros per year. This sum will therefore be passed on to some 12 million scheduled trips, the rest of which at average expense will increase from 20 to 25 euros, according to government calculations.

The concern of complementary health insurance

This increase will be painless for most policyholders, the vast majority of whom are covered by mutual insurance companies and provident institutions. These organizations are also supposed to find their account there, since they previously paid for part of the urgent transport.

The National Union of Complementary Health (Unocam) was however opposed to it in March, making a “unfavorable opinion” because of “doubts about the financial neutrality of the operation”. A partly founded fear, because the Health Insurance and the ambulance unions concluded an agreement in April, with an envelope of 340 million euros by 2025. This includes in particular price increases .