If article 3 is reintroduced on professions “in tension”, the Republicans will not vote for the text, warns Senator LR.
“There is no majority in the National Assembly to examine this text and modify it,” estimates Wednesday November 15 on France Inter, Gérard Larcher, president of the Senate, senator LR des Yvelines. The immigration bill was adopted on Tuesday at first reading in the Senate, dominated by an alliance between the right and the centrists. Gérard Larcher welcomes “by a very large vote” with 210 for and 115 against.
In this new version, clearly modified and toughened compared to that of the government, state medical aid (AME), covering the health costs of foreigners in an irregular situation on French soil, has been eliminated and replaced by aid emergency medical services (AMU). Guest of France Inter on Tuesday, the government spokesperson, Olivier Véran, assured that “the majority will be keen to reconsider a certain number of provisions introduced by the senators”, referring in particular to the AME. The President of the Republicans of the Senate recalls that the government of Élisabeth Borne has a relative majority in the National Assembly.
The abolition of state medical aid is strongly criticized by associations and health professionals. In a forum, 3,500 doctors promise to “disobey” if this measure were to be included in law. Nicolas Revel, general director of the AP-HP, spoke last Thursday on France Inter sa “very serious concern”. According to him, “if this reform went through to the end, it would have a deleterious effect on our health system. It would ultimately cost more and it would be a shock for the public hospital.”
Gérard Larcher, who emphasizes that he was president of the French hospital federation, wants to reassure. “Serious illnesses, emergencies, pregnancy and its consequences, prophylaxis and vaccination, preventive medicine are taken into account” in emergency medical aid, lists the elected official. Conversely, an undocumented patient will no longer be able to obtain care for their “hip or knee prosthesis” if there was not “recent trauma”he explains.
The president of the upper house of Parliament specifies that the “the system proposed by the Senate is the one that exists in the countries of the European Union and in particular in Northern Europe”. Gérard Larcher continues: “We are in exactly the same situation as Germany today. Do you see a health disaster?” Then, according to him, “anyway, there is the Hippocratic Oath.” Thus, it will fall to the doctors who will take care of undocumented patients “to assess the urgent nature or not”. Gérard Larcher assures that this is not “not a withdrawal of the responsibility of doctors, but a clarification of who can be provided to men and women who are in an irregular situation in our country”.
Article 3 of the asylum and immigration bill also sparked lively debates. Gérard Larcher is categorical: The Republicans will not vote for the text if the deputies reintroduce it. “I think things are clear. It has been said very clearly since March. This is not new, it was said very clearly at the end of the work of the Law Commission”he declares.
Article 3 was deleted and replaced by a more restrictive one. It also provides for regularization of undocumented workers in so-called “shortage” professions but on a case-by-case basis, at the discretion of the prefects, “without what we call an enforceable right”, underlines Gérard Larcher. Senator LR defends this measure: “There are three million unemployed in France and we have figures which unfortunately have worsened again. Among them, more than 430,000 are foreigners in a legal situation. Work is a factor of integration. So, the first “The concern we must have is to get French people, but also foreigners in a legal situation, back to work.” argues the President of the Senate.