On the verge of defending the PLFSS 2018 in the Assembly, Agnès Buzyn spoke in the Sunday Journal on the main lines of her budgetary policy.
Agnès Buzyn does not come from the political seraglio, but she learns quickly. While the Social Security financing bill (PLFSS) for the year 2018 must be presented to the National Assembly on Tuesday, the Minister of Health lent herself to the game of the educational interview in the columns from the Sunday Journal. One way to prepare for the light and to anticipate the inevitable criticisms.
“The vote for the first five-year Social Security budget allows us to launch a smooth revolution”, defends the tenant of Avenue Duquesne, who intends to implement her share of “structural reform”.
“30% of expenses are irrelevant”
“There is enormous room for maneuver without affecting equal opportunities: 30% of health insurance spending is irrelevant,” says Agnès Buzyn. The public hospital is at the forefront of savings. In line with the previous five-year term, the outpatient clinic should continue to grow. “In surgery, for example, the goal is that in 2022 seven out of ten patients who enter the hospital in the morning leave at night, against five today,” she explains.
Another saving item at the hospital: the pooling of purchases, which should save “one billion euros”. The Minister of Health also confirms that the funding of hospitals will be overhauled to incorporate the notion of “relevance of care”, while current funding, based almost exclusively on activity, “encourages unnecessary acts”
Glasses and prostheses soon to be 100%?
Asked about 100% reimbursement for glasses and hearing aids, one of Emmanuel Macron’s great campaign promises, the minister commits to an ambitious schedule. “My goal is to achieve within a year”, she indicates, while warning that “the whole chain of actors will have to contribute”. Negotiations with the complementary ones promise to be tough.
Regarding the financing of health insurance, Agnès Buzyn defends the increase in the CSG decided by the government. “We must broaden the base of those who bear the weight of national solidarity to relieve the working people,” she says. The fight against fraud should also be stepped up, announces the minister, who deplores that health insurance must remedy “the failings of work management”.
With a national health insurance expenditure target (Ondam) set at 2.3%, in accordance with Emmanuel Macron’s campaign announcements, it is more than 4 billion euros which will have to be saved by the sickness branch alone over the year 2018. A relatively gentle revolution.
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