On Tuesday evening, MPs unanimously adopted a law aimed at improving the management of breast cancer care, in order to reduce the often significant out-of-pocket costs for patients.
On Tuesday evening, January 28, 2025, MPs unanimously approved a law aimed at improving the coverage of breast cancer care in order to reduce the often high out-of-pocket costs for patients.
The most common and deadly cancer among women, it places many of them in a fragile financial situation, with an often high out-of-pocket cost and many additional treatments that are not reimbursed.
With an out-of-pocket cost of “1,400 euros on average”, the most precarious patients “forgo uncovered or insufficiently reimbursed care or products that turn out to be too expensive”, according to the rapporteur of the text the Assembly, the communist deputy Yannick Monnet.
Thus, this “text meets the very concrete expectations of 700,000 women living with (breast) cancer and for them, who are in an emergency, this law constitutes a real step forward”, according to the MP who welcomed a “cross-party mobilization” to adopt a text of “compromise”.
The text, voted on in the same terms as in the Senate, will now be able to enter into force.
Initially supported by Fabien Roussel, this communist bill was adopted in the Assembly in May, before the Senate, dominated by an alliance of the right and the center, modified it, then voted on it at the end of October, also in unanimity.
The text aims at a complete coverage of the renewal of breast implants, of the medical tattooing of the areola and the nipple or of adapted bras.
A specific package, the amount of which must be set by decree, must also allow the purchase of products prescribed by doctors, but which are not currently reimbursed, such as the purchase of creams against dryness, or even varnish to prevent nail loss induced by treatments.
200% Deposit Bonus up to €3,000 180% First Deposit Bonus up to $20,000Another envelope to finance psychological care, nutrition sessions or physical activity sessions has been enacted for patients undergoing treatment.
It is also a framework for excess fees for doctors who perform breast reconstruction after a mastectomy that has been enacted. The level of the ceiling will be negotiated in the medical agreement between health insurance and doctors.
For Mr. Monnet, this is “a major step forward” since excess fees represent the largest item in the remaining costs. And while 15% of women give up this corrective surgery for financial reasons.
“Yes, we could perhaps have gone further”, Mr. Monnet conceded, but it is necessary to allow for a “rapid application” of measures “highly anticipated by associations” to fight breast cancer.
Systematic screening
The debates sparked some emotion in the evening, particularly during the speech by MP Marine Hamelet (RN) who confided that she had been diagnosed with cancer in early 2024, and having had her breast removed.
“It is a disease that affects us viscerally as it attacks our femininity. This disease also means facing the gaze of others, often benevolent, sometimes clumsy”, delivered the MP.
“In my misfortune, I was aware of being privileged: the parliamentary allowance that I receive allowed me to be able to face the various remaining charges that crush the majority of women affected by this cancer”, she noted.
The government that supported this bill also welcomed a “text bringing concrete progress and expected by all women affected by breast cancer”, in the words of the Minister of Health Yannick Neuder.
He took the opportunity to reaffirm the government's desire to better prevent these cancers with screenings systematic.
The government “will quickly propose to be able to extend and intensify screening campaigns to particularly target at-risk populations and to reduce the age group to be able to catch these cancers earlier, which are curable when detected as early as possible”, he said.
He particularly welcomed the commitment of the President of the National Assembly in this regard.
Yaël Braun-Pivet revealed on January 10 that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer three years ago during a routine examination and that she was now undergoing hormone therapy, calling on women to get to detect.