French presidential candidate Franois Fillon | Lionel Bonaventure/AFP via Getty Images

Embattled center-right candidate waters down policy proposals.

By Natalie Huet

2/21/17, 1:09 PM CET

Updated 2/21/17, 9:40 PM CET

Frances beleaguered Franois Fillon sought to win back voters Tuesday by promising free glasses, hearing aids and dentures.

The center-right presidential candidate had been widely expected to win the election in May until he tripped on plans to slash health spending, and on a major scandal over payments to his wife and children.

Eager to regain the ground that polls suggest hemay have lost to far-right leader Marine Le Pen and independent candidate Emmanuel Macron, Fillon has now seriously softened his pitch for health care reform.

There is no question of touching public health insurance, even less privatizing it or lowering its coverage, Fillon tolda conference hosted by the Mutualit Franaise, the French federation of non-profit complementary health insurers.

Fillonplans to fully reimburse eyeglasses for children starting this year, he told Le Parisien newspaper and to negotiate a new deal with private health insurers to better cover hearing aids and dental implants. The aim isto bring household out-of-pocket costs for these productsas close as possible to zero by 2022, he said.

Former economy minister Macron, who has yet to unveil a detailed campaign manifesto, was quick to point out that he had been the first candidate to promisefull reimbursement of glasses, hearing aids and dental implants in the next five years.

Theyve been telling me, you dont have a platform but somehow it gets copied, he quipped.

Macron also wantstoinvest 5 billion in over-stretched hospitals whileboosting prevention and access to primary doctors. By relying more on outpatient care,heforesees15 billion in spending cuts over five years.

Fillon initially came under fire this fall over his radical plan to limit public health insurance to serious and chronic diseases. By Christmas, he had backpedaled on the proposal, deleted it from his website and took his whole health care reform back to the drawing board.

The former prime minister still plans to slash 20 billion in health care costs over five years by focusing on efficiency gains, capping health spending growth at 2 percent per year and ensuring patients have better access to primary care doctorsso they dont rush to hospitals to seek care.

But hesought to show he was far from caricatures and open-minded about how to make Frances generous health care system more sustainable. If elected, he said he plans to call a major conventionat the end of the year to discussits future with all the stakeholders concerned.

This article has been updated.

More:

France's Fillon mellows on health care reform - POLITICO.eu