French government to tackle surging health care deficit
Mon Sep 7, 2009 11:18am EDT
PARIS (Reuters)Excerpt:
- The French government is looking at ways to plug a gaping hole in its health care budget and may charge patients more for hospital stays, Budget Minister Eric Woerth said on Monday.
France's health system is largely financed by the state and has been hailed as the best in the world by the World Health Organization. It is also one of the most costly and the government constantly struggles to control spending.
After a 4.4 billion euro ($6.31 billion) shortfall in the health budget in 2008, Woerth said he expected the deficit to hit 10 billion euros this year and 15 billion next, with the economic downturn denting social security contributions.
"We were not far from balancing the social security books and now, with the economic (crisis) ... the deficit is taking off again," Woerth said, adding that the government would address the problem in the 2010 budget.
"We need to make savings of around 2-1/5 billion (euros) to prevent the trend for higher spending from becoming too strong."
The press reported that amongst the options under review were to increase the daily charge for hospital stays to 20 euros from 16 euros and to cut reimbursement for some over-the-counter drugs like aspirin to 15 percent from 35 percent.
END EXCERPT
Mon Sep 7, 2009 11:18am EDT
PARIS (Reuters)Excerpt:
- The French government is looking at ways to plug a gaping hole in its health care budget and may charge patients more for hospital stays, Budget Minister Eric Woerth said on Monday.
France's health system is largely financed by the state and has been hailed as the best in the world by the World Health Organization. It is also one of the most costly and the government constantly struggles to control spending.
After a 4.4 billion euro ($6.31 billion) shortfall in the health budget in 2008, Woerth said he expected the deficit to hit 10 billion euros this year and 15 billion next, with the economic downturn denting social security contributions.
"We were not far from balancing the social security books and now, with the economic (crisis) ... the deficit is taking off again," Woerth said, adding that the government would address the problem in the 2010 budget.
"We need to make savings of around 2-1/5 billion (euros) to prevent the trend for higher spending from becoming too strong."
The press reported that amongst the options under review were to increase the daily charge for hospital stays to 20 euros from 16 euros and to cut reimbursement for some over-the-counter drugs like aspirin to 15 percent from 35 percent.
END EXCERPT
