“It’s exploding”: the very sharp increase in the number of sick leaves worries the government

Home “It’s exploding”: the very sharp increase in the number of sick leaves worries the government
Written by Doug Hampton
On

the essential
The Minister of Public Accounts Gabriel Attal, questioned by the Senate on the Social Security accounts for 2022, expressed the sharp increase in the number of sick leaves and his concern.

Sick leave for French people up sharply. The number of sick leaves increased by 7.9% in 2022. A figure that worries Gabriel Attal, the Minister of Public Accounts, who was heard before the Senate on Wednesday on the bill approving the Security accounts social for 2022.

“The bulk of the overruns is still linked to daily allowances and the explosion in particular of sick leave. Last year we had an extremely significant increase, of 7.9%”, detailed Gabriel Attal before the Senate. “I’m not saying that it’s massive in volume today. On the other hand, the dynamic is very high. It’s exploding,” added the Minister of Public Accounts.

By following this trend, the annual amount of daily allowances could increase from 15 billion euros currently to … 23 billion euros by the end of the five-year term, according to calculations by Gabriel Attal. He expressed his “concern”. In 2022, the national health insurance spending target was exceeded by 10.4 billion euros. “Not just the fact of the health crisis”, explained the rapporteur LR Corinne Imbert.

Among these sick leaves, many are true, others are false. “You just have to open a social network, a press article, to see how easy it is to get sick leave,” explains the Minister of Public Accounts. An allusion to false documents that it would be easy to obtain on encrypted messaging Telegram or on Snapchat.

Several months ago, the government had tried to fight against sick leave of convenience by limiting sick leave prescribed by teleconsultation. He wanted to de-reimburse sick leaves when they had not been prescribed by the patient’s doctor or a doctor with whom the patient had already dealt remotely. The Constitutional Council had censored this project. The government does not intend to stop there. “We will have to talk about it again,” warned Gabriel Attal.

Leave a Comment