500 million euros in dental costs soon transferred to mutuals

Social Security wants to lower its reimbursements for dental care from October, for an amount of 500 million euros per year which would be transferred to complementary health. They grind their teeth.

The Social Security Department announced to them on Thursday, June 15 that from October 1, the coverage of dental care by Health Insurance will increase from 70% to 60%. It is up to mutuals, insurers and provident institutions to compensate for this reimbursement, estimated at 500 million euros in a full year.

“Unilateral” measure

A decision that does not suit them either in substance or in form. “It is not up to the challenges”, declares to AFP the president of the Mutualité française, Eric Chenut, criticizing a “unilateral” and “technocratic” measure, which “will not make it possible to accompany the transformation of the health system, nor to respond to the preventive shift”.

This choice is all the more “incomprehensible” since the government set up a “dialogue committee” at the beginning of the year to prepare a transfer initially costing 300 million, he recalls. Eric Chenut has also requested a meeting with François Braun, hoping that the Minister of Health “will ask his administration to implement the guidelines he has set”.

Impact on tariffs

But the arbitration has been validated by the government: the ministry confirmed in a press release the next “wider coverage of oral care by complementary”, up to half a billion euros.

They warn that they will pass it on to their rates next year. “This decision will mechanically have consequences on contributions,” says Marie-Laure Dreyfuss, general delegate of the Technical Center for Provident Institutions (CTIP). While also deploring an “accounting measure” and “without any added value on the level of care and overall reimbursement of the insured”.

The bill could swell further, depending on the ongoing negotiations between Health Insurance and several professions, in particular dentists who could sign a new agreement by the end of July. A negotiation with the midwives is also about to be completed, while “flash” discussions have just opened with nurses and other paramedics to compensate for inflation.

As for doctors, consultations will be increased by 1.50 euros on November 1, which will cost 700 million euros for Social Security and 100 million for additional full-year.

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