2026 Budget: 5 billion euros to be saved on Social Security

If all French people have to pay as François Bayrou has announced, patients and job seekers will not be spared.

France is sick with debt, and François Bayrou and his government intend, if not to "cure" it, at least to offer a drastic remedy before the inevitable "crushing" "if nothing is done." The temperature and the symptoms are no longer in doubt. As for the prescriptions, they affect all areas "and all French people," hammered the Prime Minister, targeting two axes: "stop the debt" and "forward to production," to achieve €43.8 billion in savings by 2026. With a significant contribution to this plan, social spending. Starting with health spending, which will have to decrease by €5.5 billion, while the increase for the same year 2026 was estimated at €10 billion.

And to achieve this, the government intends to remind patients of their necessary responsibility. "In France, we consume twice as many antibiotics as in Germany, and I don't think we need them anymore. Similarly, France has 20% of patients with long-term illnesses, while our neighbors across the Rhine have 5%..." So what? The ordinance will have to be revised, focusing on prevention, particularly vaccination, by combating the increase in unreasonable visits to the doctor to confirm already established diagnoses, or by banking on the "final" development of the Arlesienne of the shared medical record, with obligations for practitioners to complete it.

While these measures remain vague, François Bayrou, first and then Catherine Vautrin, Minister of Health, have provided more precise figures.

The Social Security budget is €650 billion, with a deficit of €22 billion. To reduce the bill, we'd start by reducing drug reimbursement. Thus, medical deductibles, capped at €50 per person per year, would be raised to €100, representing the maximum amount patients would have to pay per year for medication.

Furthermore, for patients suffering from long-term illnesses, we would sign the end of 100% reimbursements for medications unrelated to this illness. Also, a stop to sick leave that is, if not "unjustified," at least "no longer justified": checks carried out on sick leave of more than eighteen months show that 50% of them are no longer necessary. And to speed up the return to work after more than thirty days of absence, we would avoid the obligatory visit to the occupational physician for the green light from one's general practitioner.

And speaking of "returning to work," Astrid Panosyan-Bouvet, Minister of Employment, speaks of an ambitious "labor pact" with a new reform of unemployment insurance that will not spare a review of the duration of compensation, a fight against abuses in conventional terminations that would be disguised resignations, faster and easier returns to work, a component for improving working conditions and a helping hand for employers looking for candidates to recruit and who come up empty-handed.