French Health Spending Up Slightly In August

After three months of decline, French health care spending rose 0.1% in August this year compared with the previous month, according to the major health fund, the CNAMTS. The rise reflects higher payments to hospitals and out-patient treatment.

Spending reached 30.9 billion French francs ($6 billion) in August and 266 billion francs ($51.65 billion) in the first eight months of 1994.

Spending on private clinics continued to fall, but reimbursements in the general medical practice sector rose slightly, with spending on prescription medicines increasing by 0.2%. In the first half of this year, industry sales on the pharmaceutical market dipped 1%.