France Tightens Health Spending For 1997

The ceiling on French medical spending in 1997, including drug spendingand medical treatment, has been fixed at 262.2 billion French francs ($50.53 billion) compared with 258.8 billion francs in 1996, a rise of only 1.3%. After fixing public-sector hospital spending growth limits, Social Affairs Minister Jacques Barrot has imposed a tight regime of austerity on the doctors.

The budget ceiling becomes official this week (January 14) in an agreement on health service "objectives and management" between the health fund organization, the CNAM, and the government.

One doctors' organization, the CSMF, has already described the spending growth limit as a form of health care rationing which does not take account of needs. However, Mr Barrot has already made some concessions in relation to the budget limits in response to hostility from the medical profession. Antiretroviral drugs, for example, are excluded from part of the budget calculation, as are some drugs purchased in pharmacies but which have been prescribed at consultations "external to the hospital."