Health insurance deficit: the French are asking doctors for efforts

The health insurance deficit amounted to 6.5 billion euros in 2014, against 7.3 billion provided for in the Social Security financing law passed in December. Good news recently announced by the Ministries of Finance and Health in a press release. However, there is still work to be done. And to participate in this collective effort the Drees (1) asked 3,000 French what solutions they recommended to reduce the deficit of the health insurance branch.

More efforts from professionals

First of all, the French think that limiting the prices of health professionals (84%) is the best solution to reduce this deficit. Next come the taxation of drug manufacturers (81%), and a large majority of French people also want to play on the behavior of doctors. In detail, 68% want them to prescribe fewer drugs and tests, and 56% that the prescription of generic drugs be made compulsory. Only four in ten French people want to limit the freedom of installation of doctors.

The French, on the other hand, are much less convinced by measures increasing social contributions (22%) or reducing the coverage of long-term illnesses (15%).

General practitioners acclaimed

The DREES report also shows that the French overwhelmingly consider themselves to be in good health (70%) and are generally satisfied with the quality of care.
In addition, households with a higher standard of living are more likely to report being in good health (78% against 66% for the others). And in 2014, four in ten French people believe that the health of their compatriots has improved in recent years, a level that has been stable for four years, which contrasts with the decrease of 23 points observed from 2004 to 2011.
Finally, a majority of French people felt that the quality of care was satisfactory last year, especially with regard to city medicine (liberal health professionals working in private practice).

(1) The Research, Studies, Evaluation and Statistics Department