Medical excess charge cap: France drops €200 plan for inflation-linked rise

The plan to double the caps has been dropped from the government’s proposal. Instead, the Health Minister now intends to apply an increase linked to inflation in France since 2005.

For a time, the government considered asking patients to contribute to efforts to restore the Social Security accounts by raising the annual cap on medical excess charges. The sums deducted for medicine packs, paramedical treatment and medical transport will not rise from €100 to €200: Health Minister Stéphanie Rist confirmed this in an interview with Le Figaro on Thursday 20 August 2026.

Medical excess charge cap linked to inflation

Healthcare spending is rising in France, and the measure was meant to help curb that growth. However, it prompted strong criticism because it would have increased patients’ out-of-pocket costs. In her interview, the minister confirmed that the original plan had been abandoned, saying that a smaller increase, indexed to inflation, would be adopted. She described the reform as “fair, based on indexation to inflation since 2005 [...] significantly lower than the one initially considered”.

Between 2005 and 2026, the cost of living in France rose by more than 40%. This means the proposed cap for the medical excess charge should be around €140 rather than €200.

Criticism of the proposed increase

The plan had been announced a month earlier, during the summer, when the government was already facing sharp criticism over its handling of major forest fires, particularly in Gironde. It drew objections from the leading patient federation, France Assos Santé, and doctors’ and nurses’ unions including MG France and Convergence infirmière. They did not oppose raising the caps itself, but objected to the increase being so “abrupt”.

Stéphanie Rist nevertheless sought to point out that the increase had been misunderstood because, in her view, it would have meant an increase of “less than €2 per month for all French people and [...] €4 for patients with a long-term condition”. She said the adjustment based on the cost of living, in other words inflation, would be “fairer and easier to understand”.

Freeze on RSA, end of housing benefit, income tax rise… “all of this is false!”

The revised proposal from Sébastien Lecornu’s government is the second attempt, following that of François Bayrou’s government in 2025, which was rejected. The increase in medical excess charge caps is not yet in force: it must still be approved next year as part of the State and Social Security budgets.

On X, Sébastien Lecornu posted a message on the same day as Health Minister Stéphanie Rist’s announcement to deny other cost-cutting measures in France: an end to housing benefit for students, a freeze on RSA or the minimum old-age pension, and an increase in income tax. “All of this is false!” he wrote.