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Reform of the health system “requires long-term public policies and therefore continuity”, believes the former Minister of Health, Agnès Buzyn, Thursday December 21 on franceinfo.
“With each new minister, everything is called into question”estimates former Minister of Health Agnès Buzyn on franceinfo this Thursday, the day after the resignation of Aurélien Rousseau who slammed the door of the government after the adoption of the immigration law.
If she were still in office, in Aurélien Rousseau’s place, Agnès Buzyn does not know if she would have resigned to challenge the immigration law, but she “the question would certainly be asked, not to endorse a large number of measures which do not go in the right direction” of its values. “The problem with this immigration law is that it impacts a certain number of fundamental values of our Republic and moreover, it is not based on facts”criticizes Emmanuel Macron’s former minister.
“AME is not a factor of attractiveness”
This new law, drafted by the Senate and the joint committee, operates “a semantic shift”, according to Agnès Buzyn, and takes “the problem in reverse. Instead of objectively and completely tackling illegal immigration, as it was wanted by the presidential majority, we end up somewhere in reducing the attractiveness of our country for legal aliens.”
The former minister takes the example of the promise obtained by Les Républicains (LR) to reform state medical aid (AME) in 2024, failing to have been able to include it in the immigration law.
These are typically public policies that are not based on facts.
Agnès Buzyn, former Minister of Healthon franceinfo
“First, the AME is not a factor of attractiveness on our soil”, corrects Agnès Buzyn. “Secondly, the consumption of care of people in AME is strictly superimposable to the consumption of care of the poorest people in our country. So, if there are abuses, they are completely in the minority. Moreover, we We had already fought against the possibilities of abuse by modifying the AME a little, in 2018, when I was minister.”
“Each new minister wants to make his mark”
In total, since 2017 and Emmanuel Macron’s first five-year term, five ministers have been appointed to Health. Agnès Firmin-Le Bodo is the sixth person to take the interim portfolio since the resignation of Aurélien Rousseau. “It slows down our ability to reform, to implement transition policies to make the system more efficient and more effective,” observes Agnès Buzyn.
The one who left the government of Édouard Philippe in February 2020, at the dawn of the Covid-19 health crisis, does not prefer to talk about “crisis” but rather sees a “health system in difficulty and in transition, changing model. This is true in all countries in the world and therefore it is felt”. Except that to change the model, according to Agnès Buzyn, we need major reforms and a certain long-term stability to apply political measures, to “reorganize access to care, make it more efficient and therefore this requires long-term public policies and therefore continuity”.
Obviously, no minister arrives to completely implement the reform of his predecessors.
Agnès Buzyn, former Minister of Healthon franceinfo
Emmanuel Macron’s Prime Minister of Health then saw Olivier Véran succeed him, then Brigitte Bourguignon, then François Braun arrived, before Aurélien Rousseau who has just left his place to Agnès Firmin-Le Bodo. “Each new minister wants to make his mark”, explains Agnès Buzyn. “He eventually wants to make a new reform. So, you plant a reform, you work with the stakeholders and you build for the long term and the future. And with each new minister, all of this is called into question.