Undocumented migrants will be able to continue to get help for treatment. The deputies rejected on Wednesday, by 120 votes against and 77 for, a motion for a LR resolution calling for the restriction of State Medical Aid (AME) which allows foreigners in an irregular situation to access care.
The proposal called in particular to refocus the AME “on urgent care only”, to “modify the health protection of asylum seekers from safe countries of origin” and to restrict residence permits for care.
The support of the National Rally
LR Véronique Louwagie, author of the text, deplored the “slippage that has become completely uncontrollable” of the AME which, according to her, is “becoming a democratic scandal and a very great social injustice”. France is “one of the most generous countries in the EU”, assured the MP, inviting “a measured redefinition of health protection”.
This proposal, launched in the continuity of the LR offensive on immigration, was only supported by the RN “because we are coherent, sincere and non-sectarian”, declared MP Edwige Diaz.
The government rejects “demagoguery”
The government, which had sent the Minister Delegate in charge of Territorial Organization and Health Professions, Agnès Firmin Le Bodo, to the benches, was “unfavorable” to this proposal “which brings a deep questioning of the AME”. “Restricting the device to emergencies only represents a medical and financial risk”, assured the minister, recalling that with “a cost of 1.2 billion euros in 2022, and a little more than 400,000 beneficiaries”, the AME represents “0.5% of the health insurance budget”. “Most migrants have little knowledge of the AME”, she added, even if according to her “the subject must be able to be debated” but “without dogmatism” and “without demagoguery”.
On the majority side Mathieu Lefèvre (Renaissance) pleaded for a “responsible way” because “erecting the AME as a fantasy or a taboo amounts to building the best alibi for impotence”. “We will vote against but we think there is a real subject” for her part nuanced Anne Bergantz (MoDem).
On the left, the indignation was unanimous. “So here is the refrain of the nasty migrant taking advantage of the AME,” Caroline Fiat (LFI) annoyed, lamenting “xenophobic fantasies”, for which Véronique Louwagie then asked her to apologize. “Villainous proposal” for the communist Hubert Wulfranc, “nauseating assertions” for the socialist Gérard Leseul… “Who can believe that someone who flees poverty does so by reading Doctolib? “Finally asked the environmentalist Benjamin Lucas, accusing LR of” creating a diversion “after his support for the government on pension reform.