“A clandestine foreigner who arrives in our country benefits from the entire range of free care, it is in particular the AME (State medical aid) that we will abolish”, declared Jordan Bardella, the acting president of the National rally on CNews, last Thursday. Marine Le Pen candidate for the presidential election, wants to reserve “first social aid to the French”, he continued.
Words close to those recently held by Eric Zemmour on the set of Facing Baba, on C8. According to him, “the AME brings in foreigners”. And to add: “There are many Algerians, Tunisians and Africans who come to be treated in France and who never pay. Valérie Pécresse wants, for her part, restrict free access foreigners in an irregular situation “for urgent care and contagious diseases”.
Do foreigners who do not have a residence permit really benefit from all the free care? 20 minutes make the point.
FAKE OFF
No, all foreigners in an irregular situation do not have free access to “the entire range of free care” in France. The device criticized by some presidential candidates, the AME, allows “foreigners in an irregular situation to benefit from access to care” under conditions, recalls the site Service-public.fr.
Firstly, this aid is not automatically granted to all foreigners in an irregular situation. According to a report of the General Inspectorate of Finance and the General Inspectorate of Social Affairs, 318,106 people benefited from the AME at the end of 2018. The Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, recently estimated between 600,000 and 700,000 the number of undocumented migrants in France.
Aid granted under conditions
The AME is also “assigned subject to conditions of residence and resources” for one year. Its renewal must be requested each year. The allocation conditions are precise: “You must have resided in France for more than three months. You must not have had a residence permit for more than three months. You must receive resources not exceeding certain ceilings, ”lists the Service-public.fr site in particular. For a single person in mainland France, the maximum annual resources are set at €9,041. Exception made for minors, who “benefit immediately from the AME”.
With regard to the care included in the aid system, “the AME entitles you to cover 100% of your medical and hospital care within the limits of the Social Security tariffs”. Acts related to the provision of medically assisted procreation, drugs “with a low medical benefit” reimbursed at 15% and spa treatments are excluded.
Above all, certain care and treatment considered non-emergency is only covered “after a period of nine months after admission to the AME for any new beneficiary or for one who has not benefited from the ‘AME for over a year’. It should be noted that asylum seekers cannot benefit from it – they can receive universal health protection (Puma) after three months of residence in France – and that the AME is not applicable to Mayotte.
Too expensive aid according to the right
According to the National Rally, Les Républicains and Reconquête, removing this aid would save money. In its report on the finance bill for 2022, the Senate pointed out that the budget allocated to the AME is 1 billion euros. It therefore represents less than 0.5% of total public health expenditure, estimated to 209.2 billion euros in 2020. Above all, the AME allows “the screening of transmissible diseases (hepatitis B, HIV, tuberculosis, measles, etc.) whose late diagnosis is a health risk for individuals and for the population”, underlined Doctors of the World in a report published in 2017. In addition, continued the association, “patients suffering from chronic pathologies will see complications accumulate, which we know will ultimately increase care”. In other words, the AME makes it possible to avoid heavier expenses.
Since the start of the five-year term, and in the face of criticism from the right, the government has on several occasions defended this aid. The Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, explained in November 2021 that fraud was estimated at only 1.3%, defending a policy that is as “humanitarian” as “healthy”. “The health crisis has shown that our collective health is also that of the weakest among us,” he said.
Earlier in the mandate, in September 2020, the Minister Delegate for Citizenship, in charge in particular of asylum and integration issues, Marlène Schiappa, had replied to Marine Le Pen: “Tomorrow we stop treating foreigners. Do you think that untreated illnesses will save you because you have a French identity card? spoiler : no. Treating foreigners living in France is a matter of humanity but also of public health! »