Savings, but at what cost? While the government wants to scale back, in an open letter addressed to the health minister, 25 associations of people with chronic illnesses expressed concern about the consequences on coverage of medical expenses. Frédéric Valleteaux in fact indicated last week his intention to “reflect on the relevance” of the current system regarding long-term illnesses (ALD).
According to the minister, the costs associated with this pathology represent “two-thirds of the reimbursement” from health insurance. This Sunday, however, he clarified that “there is no question of saving on ALD”, “when we know medical progress exposes the architecture of a very old system”. People suffering from one of the diseases on the official list get their medical expenses reimbursed by Social Security at 100%.
Fear of “disintegration”.
Only the care associated with this pathology is relevant, and the system functions only within the planned limits. The 25 groups that signed the letter, including Roseup (cancer), Renaloo (kidney diseases) and the French Association of Haemophiliacs, highlighted the “danger of dismantling” “one of the main mechanisms of our unifying health system”.
The associations were keen to point out that the amount owed by patients with ALD after reimbursement is “practically double that of the rest of the population”. This is why “we refuse to be designated by popular vindictiveness as responsible for the deficit of the health system”, they said. The signatories also condemned the “ambient discourse” which “suggests that some patients abuse the system with the help of complacent doctors”.
