“Health insurance will withdraw and it is the insured who will pay”, deplores the Santé en danger collective

One of the main health budget saving measures concerns the reimbursement of consultations with doctors and midwives. Health insurance will only reimburse 60% of the price, compared to 70% currently, with mutual insurance companies paying the rest.

There will be 5 billion euros in savings on the health budget in 2025, the government announced Thursday October 10. One of the main saving measures will concern the reimbursement of consultations with doctors and midwives. According to the bill, health insurance will no longer reimburse 70% of the consultation with the doctor or midwife but 60%. The mutuals will pay the rest.

Clearly, in December, the price of the consultation must increase to 30 euros with the general practitioner. Health insurance will then reimburse 21 euros and mutual insurance 9 euros. With the new measure, next year, health insurance will only reimburse 18 euros and mutual insurance will increase to 12 euros.

This is when you have mutual insurance, this is not the case for around 4 to 5% of French people, who will then have to pay these 12 euros. However, believes Geneviève Darrieussecq, the Minister of Health, the measure will not penalize the sickest and the poorest. “This does not concern people with long-term illness (ALD), nor does it affect people who are on complementary solidarity health insurance (C2S). So the most vulnerable groups are protected,” she assures.

Letting mutuals reimburse more will certainly have repercussions for the French, because mutuals risk increasing their rates, rates which in 2024 had already been subject to an increase of 8% on average. “Ultimately, it is the insured who will pay”deplores on franceinfo Frédéric Paing, general practitioner and vice-president of the Santé en danger collective. “We see that health insurance will partially disengage,” he emphasizes. “We hope that mutual insurance companies will make up the difference but it will be, once again, by increasing customer rates,” the doctor is alarmed.

“We can expect a very large increase in mutual rates.”

Frédéric Paing, doctor and vice-president of Santé en danger

on franceinfo

In this context, there is a “risk of forgoing care”, according to the general practitioner. Some patients will give up treatment because of the cost. The vice-president of the Health collective denounces a budget “in trompe l’oeil”, because “the slight increase in the health budget is much lower than the increase in the aging of the population”.