2023-11-12 11:32:02
State medical aid (AME), a system intended for undocumented immigrants and which the Senate wants to abolish, is “a public health system”, assured Sunday the Minister of Health Aurélien Rousseau at the microphone of France Info. “We will never switch to an emergency medical aid type system,” he added.
On Saturday, nearly 3,500 salaried and self-employed doctors opposed to the abolition of the AME launched an appeal sent to AFP in which they pledged to “disobey” and “continue to treat these patients for free” if the system were to disappear. “I understand them, the government will fight so that they do not have to exercise civil disobedience,” responded the Minister of Health. “The AME is above all a public health system. If we put everything back on the hospital we will make a huge mistake,” he judged.
“The government is totally aligned”
The Senate adopted its deletion and replaced it with emergency medical aid, with a reduced basket of care and refocused on the management of urgent care, serious illnesses, acute pain, care related to pregnancy or even vaccinations.
The Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin, who had said “personally” in favor of a reform of the system before the start of the examination of the text, finally hoped at the end of the week “that the reform of the AME not be in the final adopted text” after the passage to the National Assembly in December, his entourage told AFP. “The government is totally aligned”, “we will never switch to an emergency medical aid type system”, assured Aurélien Rousseau.
A charter of good practice in response to the shortage of medicines
The minister was also questioned about the shortage of medicines, which remains relevant in France. On Friday, he called on stakeholders in the sector for more solidarity to better distribute the distribution of antibiotics, such as amoxicillin, in order to guarantee access to them this winter. He asked all links in the chain to develop a charter of good practice “within ten days”. “I said ‘either within ten days you are able to restore order to the regulations, or in the end we will take somewhat authoritarian measures'”, he detailed on France Info.
Certain large pharmacies which order directly from manufacturers without going through wholesale distributors could, for example, be prohibited from doing so. “The meeting was a little lively but I will check the robustness of the commitments made,” assured Aurélien Rousseau.
1699801348
#State #Medical #Aid #public #health #system #Minister #Health