The Social Security finance bill is being discussed this week in the National Assembly. The departmental committee of the League against Cancer believes that it places savings on sick people.
It is this week that the Social Security finance bill is being debated in the National Assembly. Rather than improving prevention, this bill envisages reductions in the support and accompaniment of sick people, estimates the Gard departmental committee of the League against cancer.
“In the fight against cancer, prevention is essential. NWe have known for years that 40% of cancers could be avoided and are attributable to our lifestyles and pollution. It is therefore very easy to understand that investing in prevention, information, awareness and screening is in reality a very effective way of saving on health expenses in the future. However, if the 2025 social security finance bill is adopted as is, it is, once again, the sick and patients who will have to make efforts. I find this particularly unfair and unjustifiable », denounces Dr André Mathieu, president of the Gard Committee of the League against cancer.
Medical transport as an adjustment variable
The Gard committee points to the rest being the responsibility of medical transport. They represent today in France the second highest out-of-pocket cost behind dental care for long-term conditions, on average 961 euros. He regrets that the bill considerably increases the risk of refusal of care by people with cancer far from health centers, which represents an essential subject and a fear for the League.
In the department, despite all the commitment of the committee, some patients still remain away from care and support care, particularly in the Cévennes, Vigan, Quissac and Beaucaire. Increasing administrative procedures to have access to transport will once again keep fragile, tired patients, 80% of whom have cognitive disorders, away from their care, deplores the League.
Stopping work or stopping care?
She is also concerned about the capping of daily allowances at 1.4 SMIC compared to 1.8 SMIC currently. The risk is major and far from trivial, since it will naturally push sick people who do not benefit from continued salary to remain employed to ensure their budget balance; putting their health at risk, particularly for people with cancer.
Irrelevant prescriptions: patients will pay the price
The Gard committee is still worried about irrelevant prescriptions. Under the guise of controlling the relevance of prescriptions, the bill will not make doctors responsible but will, on the contrary, make their procedures more cumbersome, while penalizing patients who may be refused reimbursements from the health insurance fund. Putting it in the heads of doctors and patients that certain prescriptions are not relevant is to reduce access to prevention, listening to the patient, deplores the Gard committee.
Targeted recipes to improve prevention
Finally, concerning recipes, the Gard committee considers that the bill does not include any measure aimed at limiting the consumption of tobacco, alcohol, the omnipresence of sugar in the diet and the development of an ultra- transformed. The departmental committee is particularly active and pioneering on tobacco-free spaces which should have been generalized for a year. “But today, not a single word on this strategy which has nevertheless proven itself”concludes the Gard committee.
