The cost of death
Practical Guide

The cost of death

Dying is free. Everything else costs extra. Here's the bill.

The prices of death in France (2024)

Traditional Funeral

4,500€

Casket, ceremony, transport, 30-year burial plot

Cremation

3,200€

Urn, ceremony, scattering or columbarium

Family vault

8,500€

Construction + perpetual burial plot

Embalming

400€

Optional. Nobody is required to have it.

Flowers & wreaths

350€

Standard floral arrangement

Headstone

3,500€

Granite, engraving, installation included

Compost, reef, diamond, orbit: what about you?Compare every way to go and plan your funeral, step by step.Plan your funeral

What is your life worth to medicine?

What a reprieve costs, procedure by procedure. Flip a card: who does the work, what French public health insurance pays back when that's on record, and what the bill doesn't say.

Organ transplants

The price of an organ given for free.

Kidney Transplant

+ 15 years

85,000 €

Replaces three dialysis sessions a week, for as long as the graft holds. The most transplanted organ, in France and everywhere else.

Behind the bill

Transplant Surgeon

Covered at 100 % (long-term illness)

He's a hospital doctor on a salary. Transplanting on a Sunday earns him on-call pay, not a fee.

Liver Transplant

+ 12 years

150,000 €

8 to 12 hours in the OR. The only organ that grows back.

Behind the bill

Senior Hepatic Surgeon

Covered at 100 % (long-term illness)

Twelve hours on his feet. At a public hospital, his salary doesn't move by a single euro.

Heart Transplant

+ 11 years

350,000 €

Under 4 hours between harvest and the first beat inside the recipient's chest.

Behind the bill

Cardiac Surgeon

Covered at 100 % (long-term illness)

The heart itself costs nothing. In France, donation is free: neither the donor nor the family gets a single euro.

Lung Transplant

+ 6 years

280,000 €

The organ most vulnerable to infection. A second breath under permanent surveillance.

Behind the bill

Thoracic Surgeon

Covered at 100 % (long-term illness)

Median survival: about six years. Of all grafts, it's the one that wears out fastest.

Heart-Lung Transplant

+ 8 years

Fewer than fifteen a year in France. It takes a donor whose heart and lungs are both intact.

Behind the bill

Surgical Team (x3)

Covered at 100 % (long-term illness)

Three teams in the OR for a single recipient. The rest of the bill: intensive care and immunosuppressants for life.

Pre-Transplant Assessment

+ 0 (the right to hope)

15,000 €

Dozens of tests, from blood work to scans, to get onto the national waiting list.

Behind the bill

Multidisciplinary Team

Covered at 100 % (long-term illness)

This assessment postpones nothing. It qualifies. You now exist on a waiting list.

Neurosurgery

Operating deep within the brain to preserve consciousness and motor function.

Pituitary Adenoma

25,000 €

A benign tumor of the pituitary gland, removed through the nose before it crushes the optic nerves.

Behind the bill

Neurosurgeon

He goes in through the nose so he doesn't have to open the skull. No visible scar.

Aneurysm (Embolization)

+ 30 years

40,000 €

Platinum coils pushed from the groin up to the brain to seal off the aneurysm, ruptured or not.

Behind the bill

Interventional Neuroradiologist

For a ruptured aneurysm, the ISAT trial (The Lancet, 2002) found fewer deaths or disabilities after one year than with open-skull surgery.

Glioblastoma (Surgery)

median: 15 months

60,000 €

Fluorescence-guided resection: remove as much tumor as possible without touching anything else.

Behind the bill

Surgical Neuro-oncologist

Covered at 100 % (long-term illness)

Full treatment: surgery, radiation and temozolomide (EORTC trial, 2005). At five years, one patient in ten is alive.

Brain Tumor Resection

+ 5 years (depending on grade)

60,000 €

Awake surgery down to the millimeter to map and preserve language areas.

Behind the bill

Senior Neurosurgeon

You were awake, naming pictures while he operated. You were the one telling him where to stop.

Cardiology

Unblock, replace, bypass.

Stent (Blocked Artery)

8,000 €

A small 3 mm mesh tube, placed in 40 minutes, often through the artery in the wrist.

Behind the bill

Interventional Cardiologist

Put in through the wrist, no general anesthesia. Patients often go home the next day.

Valve Replacement

+ 10 years

35,000 €

A biological or mechanical valve built to sustain over 35 million beats per year.

Behind the bill

Cardiac Surgeon

Biological valves are cut from cow pericardium or taken from a pig. Mechanical ones last longer, but mean blood thinners for life.

Artificial Heart (Temporary)

until a donor heart

180,000 €

An implanted artificial heart, wired to an external console, while waiting for a donor heart.

Behind the bill

Surgeon + intensive care team

Covered at 100 % (long-term illness)

It's not a cure, it's a waiting room. You carry it in a backpack.

Coronary Angiography

2,500 €

Dynamic arterial mapping under X-rays with iodinated contrast agent.

Behind the bill

Cardiologist

The test that decides whether you need a stent. It reads your arteries like a page of text.

Triple Bypass (Surgery)

+ 12 years

55,000 €

Bypass of blocked coronary arteries using a venous graft harvested from the leg.

Behind the bill

Cardiovascular Surgeon

The vein comes from your leg. The body keeps spares.

Oncology & Cancer

The earlier it's found, the less it costs. In both senses.

Early Screening (Stage 0)

1,200 €

Caught early, breast cancer is cured nine times out of ten, according to France's National Cancer Institute.

Behind the bill

Radiologist + gynecologist

Mammogram covered at 100 %, ages 50 to 74

Every two years, nothing to pay up front. Even so, barely one woman in two goes (Santé publique France).

Lumpectomy (Stage 1)

+ 15 years

15,000 €

Targeted surgical excision with clean margins to preserve the organ.

Behind the bill

Surgical Oncologist

Covered at 100 % (long-term illness)

The organ is kept. For the breast, twenty years of follow-up show the same survival as removing it (NEJM, 2002).

Chemo + Radiation Therapy

+ 5 years

65,000 €

Six weeks of radiation, five days out of seven, with rounds of chemotherapy around them.

Behind the bill

Oncologist + radiation therapist

Covered at 100 % (long-term illness)

30 radiation sessions, 6 rounds of chemotherapy. The oncologist's consultation is the cheapest line on the bill.

Immunotherapy (Stage 4)

depends on the cancer

~95,000 €

Rearming the patient's immune defenses to attack advanced tumor cells.

Behind the bill

Specialist oncologist

Covered at 100 % (long-term illness)

Pembrolizumab's list price is 2,380 € a vial. The real price, negotiated with the French state, is secret.

CAR-T Cell Therapy

350,000 €

Genetic reprogramming of the patient's lymphocytes in a high-security lab.

Behind the bill

Immunology team (x5)

Covered at 100 % (long-term illness)

327,000 € a bag, at the price set in France. The cells are yours. The patent isn't.

Specialties & Technical Procedures

The price of expertise when your body stops cooperating.

Bladder Resection

6,000 €

Minimally invasive endoscopic procedure via natural orifices with no scarring.

Behind the bill

Urologist

No incision: the urologist goes in through the urethra. The tumor often comes back, hence check-ups for years.

Lithiasis (Laser)

4,500 €

Instant fragmentation of obstructive kidney stones via Holmium laser fiber.

Behind the bill

Urologist

The stone turns to dust, and the dust leaves the natural way.

Prostate (Da Vinci Robot)

28,000 €

Robotic arms that filter out hand tremor, to spare the nerves that control erections.

Behind the bill

Robotic Urologist

The surgeon operates seated at a console a few meters away. The robot does nothing without him.

Orthopedics

Restoring mobility: titanium prostheses, robotics, and bone reconstruction.

Arthroscopy (Meniscus)

3,500 €

Joint repair under miniature camera through two 5-millimeter incisions.

Behind the bill

Orthopedic surgeon

45 minutes, two 5 mm holes. Patients often go home the same day.

Hip Prosthesis

18,000 €

Titanium stem and ceramic cup allowing walking to resume the very next day.

Behind the bill

Orthopedic surgeon

The implant lasts about twenty years. Put in at 60, it may need replacing. Put in at 85, rarely.

Spine Reconstruction

40,000 €

Vertebral stabilization using titanium pedicle screws and rods to protect the spinal cord.

Behind the bill

Spine Surgeon

He realigns the spine with titanium screws and rods. The metal stays in, usually for life.

Knee Prosthesis (Robotic)

22,000 €

Bone cuts guided to within half a millimeter by 3D navigation.

Behind the bill

Orthopedic surgeon

The robot guides the saw, the surgeon decides. The new knee lasts about twenty years.

Effort index · Net French minimum wage

How many months of labor to afford your departure?

Net minimum wage baseline = 1,478 €/month (June 2026)
1.5 months·Minimal cremation (without ceremony)
2,200 €
3 months·Average funeral in France
4,500 €
5.3 months·Full funeral with monument
7,800 €
15.9 months·One year in a nursing home, average out-of-pocket cost (DREES)Off the charts
23,484 €
0 months3 months6 months9 months12 months (1 year of labor)

Sources: Services-Funéraires.fr · UFC-Que Choisir · DREES (nursing homes, 2019) · French minimum wage as of June 1, 2026 · Agence de la biomédecine · CEPS · Stupp et al., NEJM 2005