the tightening of state medical aid by the right sows unrest among the majority

2023-11-03 06:00:37
Gérald Darmanin (center), during a question session to the government, at the National Assembly, October 17, 2023. JULIEN MUGUET FOR “LE MONDE”

Originally, the government had not planned to attack state medical aid (AME). But the Les Républicains (LR) party, which considers the health system too generous with undocumented immigrants, took advantage of its position of strength in the Senate to add, during the passage of the immigration bill in committee in March, an article which transforms AME into emergency medical aid (AMU), with a much more restricted scope and access conditions. Currently, the system established by the left in 2000 gives the right to medical and hospital care – within the limits of Social Security rates – to foreigners in an irregular situation who have been in France for at least three months.

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At the Luxembourg Palace, where the debate on the immigration bill begins Monday, November 6, Gérald Darmanin hopes to find common ground with the right. On October 7, the Minister of the Interior reiterated his support ” personally “In The Parisian, to the measure demanded by LR and its centrist ally in the Senate of “delete the AME and transform it into AMU”. “It’s a good compromise that combines firmness and humanity”assessed the former Sarkozyst, who has defended this position for around ten years.

If article 3, which should facilitate the regularization of undocumented workers in professions in shortage, is the red line brandished by Eric Ciotti, the unraveling of the AME has served for years as a totem on the right, just as on the right. ‘far right. In January 2021, Marine Le Pen proposed replacing it with emergency vital aid. “It happens that an illegal alien is treated better than a French person, who contributes and is not fully reimbursed for the costs”affirmed on BFM-TV the future finalist of the presidential election – in reality, the AME is only granted to irregular foreigners who receive less than 810 euros per month for a single person, like complementary solidarity health for French.

Olivier Véran expresses “real disagreement”

Since Emmanuel Macron’s first five-year term, the AME has sparked dissension within the presidential camp. Three days after the release of Gérald Darmanin, Olivier Véran expressed a “real disagreement” with him, on Franceinfo. “I know pretty much what I’m talking about. asserted the government spokesperson and professional neurologist. I don’t know a colleague who would stop treating someone because they didn’t have the right paperwork when they were sick. » Rather than arbitrate this dispute, the Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, entrusted a mission on October 8 to the former socialist minister of health, Claude Evin, and to Patrick Stefanini, former presidential campaign director of Valérie Pécresse, with a view to possible « adaptations » to bring to the AME.

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