The annual cap on medical co-payments in France will rise from 100 euros to 140 euros starting October 1, an increase that patients and pharmacists are calling unfair, French broadcaster TF1 reported.
The per-item charges themselves are not changing. Patients will still pay 2 euros for each doctor's consultation and 1 euro for each box of medication. What changes is the yearly ceiling on those charges, which rises from 100 to 140 euros.
At a pharmacy counter, a patient named Moussa, who has a long-term illness known in France as an ALD, needs ten boxes of medication a month to treat his condition. With 1 euro deducted for each box, his treatment will cost him 20 euros more a year under the new cap. He said he was not surprised, noting that everyone knows the state of the Social Security system and its abuses, and that the money has to come from somewhere.
Patients call the increase unfair
Marie-Thérèse, a retired patient with an ALD who also appeared in TF1's report, described the change as an injustice. She said she did not spend money for pleasure, that she had paid into the system for years without falling ill, and that now she is being asked to pay more.
René-Pierre Clément, a pharmacist in Thionville, in the Moselle region, and national vice president of the pharmacists' union USP, told TF1 the change would clearly target the people who use healthcare the most. He said those people are often elderly and are the ones who need care the most, calling the measure particularly unjust.
Chronic illness patients hit hardest
Patients with chronic conditions are expected to bear the heaviest burden. Nathalie Coutinet, a health economist at Sorbonne Paris-Nord University, said patients with an ALD already face out-of-pocket costs of between 500 and 1,000 euros a year. She said those patients, meaning people with serious illnesses such as cancer or diabetes, would be the most affected by the new measure.
Some patients remain exempt
France's Ministry of Health said 18 million French people remain exempt from these charges, including minors, pregnant women and beneficiaries of the complementary santé solidaire scheme, a state-subsidized supplementary health insurance program for people on low incomes.
That exemption has not reassured patient associations. Gérard Raymond, president of France Asso Santé, a national patients' rights association, said he fears some people will avoid seeing a doctor or collecting their medication because they cannot afford the added cost. He said this would leave more people falling sicker and adding to pressure on hospital emergency departments.
More increases planned
The amount patients pay out of pocket is expected to keep climbing. From 2028, the cap will be indexed to inflation. TF1 said its own calculations suggest the change would bring French Social Security at least 300 million euros a year in additional revenue.
