“The account is not there” and it is “one blow too many”, deplore the health sections of the CGT, Force Ouvrière, Sud Solidaires and Unsa in a press release.
“One stroke too many” : four hospital public service unions are calling on agents on Friday to go on strike on October 29 to protest against the Social Security budget for 2025, “below needs”. The government presented a very constrained 2025 budget on Thursday evening, which aims to contain the Social Security deficit to 16 billion euros in 2025, after 18 billion in 2024. The increase in health spending (national health spending target health insurance, Ondam) will be limited to +2.8%, after 3.3% in 2024.
Health spending increases inexorably every year, driven by inflation, the aging of the population and the rise in chronic diseases. The envelope dedicated to the hospital will increase by 3.1%, but for the Federation of French Hospitals (FHF), this is an increase in “trompe l’oeil”since the government is also increasing retirement contributions paid by health establishments by around 1 billion euros.
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The health of the population “in serious danger”
These announcements sound “like the hallali of the French health system”. For the world of Health, already in great difficulty, “the account is not there” and it is “one stroke too many”deplored Friday in an inter-union press release the health sections of the CGT, Force Ouvrière, Sud Solidaires and Unsa. “If the budgetary elements are confirmed and the parliamentarians ratify a starving Ondam, it is the health of the population which is in serious danger”continue these organizations, demanding a «plan Marshall» for health, with an increase in the budget “which must tend towards 10%”.
They call like this “to a national day of mobilization and strike on October 29” pour “make demands heard” professionals from public hospitals and social and medico-social establishments. More broadly, this Social Security financing bill (PLFSS) “deepens inequalities”and degrades “the rights of socially insured persons”deplores Unsa in another press release.
To make several billion savings, the government plans in particular to transfer to complementary health insurance a greater share of the reimbursement of medical consultations, to lower the ceiling for compensation received in the event of sick leave, or even to postpone by six months the annual revaluation of pensions. “All this will worsen inequalities and the foregoing of care”deplores the Solidaires union, which denounces a “austerity budget”.
