The Senate has adopted the 2025 health budget, the final chapter in France’s tumultuous months-long budget process that felled the previous government. Francois Bayrou's government can heave a sigh of relief, but the final budget falls short of the belt-tightening initially envisaged.
The upper house Senate, dominated by the right and centre-right, approved Monday the Social Security Financing Bill (PLFSS) with 225 votes to 104.
Public Accounts Minister Amélie de Montchalin had asked senators to “move as quickly as possible out of this period of uncertainty and instability” by adopting the health budget, nearly four months after it was first submitted to parliament.
The Senate vote on France's deficit-ridden public health sector brings an end to an unprecedented and prolonged budgetary process, after the State budget for 2025 was also definitively adopted by Parliament on 6 February. Prime Minister Bayrou pushed it through without a vote and survived the ensuing vote of no confidence.
Concessions to Socialists
The government does not have a clear majority in parliament and had to make concessions to avoid the risk of losing a vote of confidence, which befell the previous Barnier government.
The 2025 budget projects a 3.4 percent increase in healthcare spending, up from the initial 2.8 percent, in line with demands made by the Socialist Party.
This includes an additional €1 billion for hospitals, and a tripling of the emergency fund for elderly care homes.
The government also had to abandon plans to increase the ticket moderateur (a patient's out-of-pocket expense after health insurance reimbursement), scale back the cuts imposed on businesses regarding social security exemptions, and scrap the proposal to de-index pensions from inflation.
The Senate-backed proposal to introduce seven additional unpaid working hours per year also failed to get approval.
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€22 billion deficit
While taxes on fizzy drinks and online gaming have been increased, they are by no means enough to offset the concessions and down-sizing of cuts to health spending.
As a result, France's social security deficit is expected to reach a record €22.1 billion, rather than the €16 billion originally forecast.
An increasingly ageing population is also set to put added strain on an already stretched system.
In mid-February the public auditor (Cour des comptes) warned of "uncontrolled spending".
France's overall deficit is running at around six percent of GDP. The belt-tightening 2025 budget is aimed at getting that down to 5.4 percent. It looks increasingly unlikely that target will be reached. And it's way above the EU limit of 3 percent introduced in 2024.
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