Gabriel Attal announces a reform of state medical aid “before the summer by regulatory means”

Elisabeth Borne had promised it to the right during the negotiations on the immigration bill. Gabriel Attal assured Tuesday that the reform will be based on “a basis that is known: the Evin-Stefanini report”.

This was one of the central demands of the right during the debates on the immigration bill. Gabriel Attal announced an upcoming reform of state medical aid (AME), during its general policy statement before the National Assembly, Tuesday January 30.

“I will keep the commitment of my predecessor to reform state medical aid”, promised the Prime Minister to the deputies. Elisabeth Borne had promised this to the right during the negotiations on the immigration bill, if the opposition renounced within the framework of this text the establishment of a “emergency medical aid” replacing the AME. “We will do it before summer by regulatory means”specified Gabriel Attal.

A system that is “generally mastered” but which “deserves to be adapted”

Gabriel Attal assures that the reform will be based on “a basis that is known: the Evin-Stefanini report”. Handed down in December 2023, it concluded that the AME, which provides for full coverage of health costs granted to foreigners in an irregular situation present in France for at least three months and subject to resource conditions, is a system “generally controlled”but who “worth adapting”. The two authors were received by the new Minister of Labor, Health and Solidarity, Catherine Vautrin on Thursday.

The AME gives the right to 100% coverage, on a slightly more restricted basket of care than that of the general health insurance scheme: medical, hospital and maternity-related costs are, for example, covered, but those relating to thermal cures or medically assisted procreation are excluded. At the end of 2023, 466,000 people benefited from it.

Republican boss Eric Ciotti denounced “a form of betrayal of the word given”who asserts that“there was a commitment (…) to bring a legislative text for the AME”. In his letter of December 18 to the President of the Senate, Gérard Larcher, the former Elisabeth Borne had promised “regulatory or legislative developments which will make it possible to initiate a reform of the AME”.