Health Care Provision

Medication

France is one of the world’s biggest consumers of drugs and the biggest in Europe. Since 1990, spending on drugs has more than doubled, and since 1997, prescription drug purchases account for the bulk of outpatient health care consumption.

The amount spent annually on pharmaceuticals is thus more than €27 billion. As a consequence, both the government and the statutory health insurance system are working actively to promote the use of generic drugs, which are identical to their brand counterparts (patented in the public domain) but less expensive. In 2004, only 6% of reimbursable drugs and 13% of drugs sold over the counter were generic, as compared to between 30% and 50% in certain European countries. Generics have however generated savings of several millions of euros for the health insurance fund.