Savings being suggested in the Health Budget

[NormanH]

On Thursday the Assurance Maladie will

make some suggestions to the Government to save 2.2 billion €

1. There will be a lower price paid

   for generic medicines, and an even greater number non-reimbursed if
   judged not to be of therapeutic value. Pharmacies will be allowd
   greater freedom to negotiate the prices of generics with the
   manufacturers

2. A reduction of the tariffs for X

   rays and various tests

3. An attempt to get Doctors to

   prescribe less, and more anti-fraud checks

4. A series of incentives for people

   to be treated at home such as not having to pay the 'franchises' if
   you choose physiotherapy at home instead of in a convalescent centre
   after a knee replacement, and savings on the way of treating such
   things as hernias and varicose veins Sweden and the UK are cited as
   examples in this !
   http://www.lefigaro.fr/conjoncture/2012/07/10/20002-20120710ARTFIG00255-l-assurance-maladie-s-attaque-aux-gaspillages.php

5. Sick pay will be reduced for those

   on more than 2500€ a month

6. The tax on 'Mutuelles' will go up

   from 3.5% to 7%

One piece of good news for those on

low incomes is that a new 'social tariff' will be brought in for

dental apparatus for those just above the income at which the CMU can

be claimed.

Sources

http://www.lefigaro.fr/conjoncture/2012/07/17/20002-20120717ARTFIG00209-la-secu-devoile-ses-pistes-d-economiespour-2013.php

http://www.lefigaro.fr/assurance/2012/07/03/05005-20120703ARTFIG00921-assurance-maladie-ce-qui-change-en-2012.php

[idun]

So how will this translate into everyday living. Well mutuellists will have to decide if they will pay anything towards those things that are no longer being reimbursed. Ours did for the odd thing....... but that may now be changing. And surely mutuellists costs will once again rise.

I don't understand why they would tax mutuelles more though, surely many of these are cooperatives?

Have those enormous depassemente d'honoraires been addressed? Not that that concerns government spending, but it certainly concerns everyone else.

[cooperlola]

All sound pretty sensible to me. 

However, like Idun, I'm not sure about how making insurance more expensive helps anybody - the punter pays regardless.  I know of at least one couple who earn just too much to qualify for CMU-C who just cannot afford top-up and who thus often just let "minor" ailments go untreated rather than visit the doc' and pay the difference themselves for drugs and treatment.  One day this will lead to them ignoring something and ending up very ill indeed.  It's always seemed to me that those in this income "gap" (too rich for state help, too poor to help themselves) are the ones who suffer.  I'd like to see a sliding scale of help for them and tax relief on the mutuelle payments would be a good way to do this, imho.

[idun]

Is there not tax relief on payments to mutualists?

I ask because this was being campaigned for several years ago and I actually thought that it had gone through. I would never have known and it wouldn't have affected us, as ours was deducted directly from the payslip and workers with mutalists via their CE were apparently in a bit of a different situation.

[cooperlola]

I don't know, Idun, is the truth.  I don't like to pry into the financial affairs of others.  "We can't afford top-up" is as far as it's got and none of my business why, really so I haven't looked into it much as it wouldn't affect us anyway.  I bet Norman knows.

 

EDIT : Ooo, er, post number twelve thousand.  I really must get a life.[:$]

[Benjamin]

Also in't it probably the case that those unable to afford top up cover will be under the threshold for paying tax?

[NormanH]

Les cotisations salariales versées dans le cadre d'un contrat de mutuelle obligatoire sont

déductibles du revenu net fiscal.

C'est

l'application de l'article 83-2 du code général des impôts : les

salariés peuvent déduire, dans certaines limites du montant de leur

rémunération imposable, les

cotisations versées à des organismes de prévoyance complémentaire auxquels ils sont

affiliés à titre obligatoire en vertu d'une convention collective, un accord d'entreprise ou une décision de l'employeur

http://www.linternaute.com/argent/impots/declaration-de-revenus-2012/mutuelle-d-entreprise-obligatoire.shtml

which would explain idun's case.

I don't think those of us who pay a non-obligatory Mutuelle can deduct the payments, but in some cases help is available towards the costs.

http://vosdroits.service-public.fr/F13375.xhtml

[cooperlola]

[quote user="Benjamin"]Also in't it probably the case that those unable to afford top up cover will be under the threshold for paying tax?



[/quote]Well, no that is my point.  There appears (and as I say, I may have this wrong as it's not exactly something I've - happily - ever needed to look into) to be a kind of cut-off point where you begin to pay tax and all the other means-tested benefits disappear.  It seems to me that it's in this income band that there are still a lot of problems.  But as I say, I don't exactly know the full details of their finances.