Gérald Darmanin announces a “reform” of state medical aid which will be initiated “from the beginning of 2024”

He says he wants to answer “according to the requirements” of the Senate. The Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, announced, Monday, December 11 to the National Assembly, that the government would initiate a “reform” state medical aid (AME) “from the beginning of 2024”. He promised a “text deposit” will be “directly inspired” by a recent report submitted to the executive on this system which covers the health costs of undocumented foreigners.

The text of the immigration bill passed at first reading in the Senate provided for the elimination of the AME and its transformation into more restrictive “emergency medical aid”. In committee, at the beginning of December, the deputies reestablished the AME, with the support of the government. The text presented in the Assembly hemicycle “dismisses subjects which clearly had no place in this text, because the Constitutional Council will certainly censor them”declared Gérald Darmanin on Monday. “This is not an immigration subject, but a public health subject”had warned, a week earlier, the Minister of Health, Aurélien Rousseau.

According to the report submitted to the government on December 4 by Claude Evin and Patrick Stefanini, the AME is “generally controlled”but “deserves to be adapted”. The document highlights “health utility” of the device and points to the “limits and risks” of its replacement by “emergency medical aid”. However, it proposes strengthening controls and “eligibility criteria”particularly with regard to family situation.