Mutual insurance companies, medical devices, pharmacy groups... The Senate opposes several taxes which could bring in more than a billion euros to reduce the Social Security deficit

The Senate opposed on Thursday and Friday several taxes contained in the draft Social Security budget for 2027, including a contribution requested from mutual societies, expected to bring in more than a billion euros for Health Insurance. Dominated by an alliance between the right and the centrists wary of tax measures, the upper house has displayed its disagreements with the government on the Social Security financing bill (PLFSS). Main senatorial decision, the almost unanimous refusal of an exceptional contribution on complementary health insurance, set at 2.05%.

Established last year, it was supposed to be ephemeral but the government wants to renew it to recover 1.1 billion euros. “The continued increase in mutual prices would particularly penalize the purchasing power of the French,” denounced Senator Serge Bérard (Nouvelle Energie), criticizing like most of his colleagues an “indirect tax” probably passed on by mutual societies to their members. Anxious to preserve the Social Security deficit, the senators assure that they will be able to compensate for this lost billion by proposing a transfer of costs from Health Insurance to mutual societies, in particular on prevention expenses.

But the Minister of Health, Stéphanie Rist, affirmed that it would be impossible to obtain such a "return", defending the tax as a measure of "budgetary seriousness". The Senate had already rejected several taxes on Thursday evening, in particular a contribution targeting financial flows circulating from pharmaceutical laboratories to “groups” of community pharmacies. The government regretted this decision, supporting a system to fight against the financialization of the health system, which was also expected to bring in 120 million euros.

1.7 billion in revenue for pharmaceutical companies Faced with "deep concerns" from the sector, Stéphanie Rist, on the other hand, agreed before the senators to waive another tax, on manufacturers of medical devices (prescription glasses, IUDs, wheelchairs, etc.). However, she wanted to preserve the yield of this tax (150 million euros), demanding from manufacturers a reduction in their prices and a higher contribution under the "safeguard clause", a mechanism which plans to make manufacturers pay if the expenses reimbursed by Health Insurance exceed a certain threshold.

The senators also approved various adjustments in the effort requested from pharmaceutical companies, set by the government at 1.7 billion euros for 2027. The rate of an “additional contribution” was notably increased to preserve this yield. Industrialists in the sector had denounced in recent days a "break of trust" with the government, accused of changing the rules of the game in the middle of the budgetary debate.

The executive being deprived of a parliamentary majority, all these votes are for the moment indicative, but the government could retain certain measures if it uses 49. 3 to have the Social Security budget adopted without a vote.

Machine-translated from French