AME reform project: the Health Insurance Council refuses to examine the decrees, blocking their publication

The Health Insurance Council, a sort of parliament of the institution, ultimately did not examine, on Thursday, September 11, the draft decrees aimed at restricting access to State Medical Aid (AME) intended for illegal immigrants, which therefore cannot be promulgated quickly, Agence France-Presse (AFP) learned from a union source.

In a press release, the CFDT, CGT and UNSA welcomed the fact that the draft decrees – signed at the beginning of September when François Bayrou was still Prime Minister – "were finally withdrawn" from the agenda of the National Health Insurance Fund council, as they had requested.

The unions denounced the "lack of legitimacy" of the resigning government to implement "new political directions." The decrees in question would have the effect of "reducing the basket of care and delaying access to certain benefits for people in an irregular situation," "with serious consequences both for the people concerned and for public health," they stated. These are "political maneuvers whose sole objective is, once again, to stigmatize foreigners and make them scapegoats," they added.

The government must obtain the opinion of the Health Insurance Fund on this type of decree before it can publish it, otherwise it will be annulled in the event of an appeal. However, this opinion is only advisory.

Under the draft decree , access to AME would now be conditional on the presentation of a photo ID document. The spouse's resources would be taken into account when calculating income – AME cannot be granted above 847 euros of income per month for a single person.

Coverage for a certain number of treatments would be conditional on a stay of more than nine months in the national territory, such as the provision of glasses or dental prosthetics.

The union victory will, however, have to be confirmed, as nothing prevents the new government led by Sébastien Lecornu, once formed, from returning to the charge to ask if it wishes to examine the contested texts, presented last week by François Bayrou's government, just a few days before the Prime Minister's resignation.