Worried about the “spiral” of social debt “always higher and less and less financed” and which must be stopped “with pressing urgency”, the Court of Auditors has just presented the measures which, according to it, would make it possible to absorb the Social Security deficit.
The Court suggests in particular that health insurance cease reimbursing optical costs, which are poorly reimbursed and covered by complementary health insurance. This suggestion is above all symbolic because the reimbursement of optical costs represents only 200 million euros. But it may not be symbolic at all for myopic, astigmatic or presbyopic because without reimbursement of the security, the optical equipment risks losing its health character.
But knowing that it is working on eggshells, the Court nevertheless takes some precautions by correlating the abolition of reimbursement by the security system with the generalization of complementary health insurance. “As soon as the complementary health insurance is generalized, could arise, as regards the corrective perspective, the question of a re-examination of its articulation with the compulsory health insurance including a reflection on a possible withdrawal of the latter. of the field ”emphasizes the Court.
Another avenue of savings suggested by the Court of Auditors: the development of outpatient surgery, that is to say surgical procedures performed in the hospital which allow the patient to be discharged the same day. In France, outpatient surgery represents 40% of surgical procedures against 80% in “several countries that are comparable to us. In this regard, the considerable delay in outpatient surgery in our country is detrimental ”underlines the Court, which estimates that the development of outpatient surgery would save 5 billion euros.
The Court of Auditors also estimates that substantial savings could be made by intervening in the pricing and the number of acts performed by medical analysis laboratories, the cost of which now represents 6 billion euros for health insurance. “Actions taken in this direction would save 500 million euros” insisted the Court.
