2023-12-03 23:46:48
The Social Security budget should be definitively adopted on Monday via the rejection of a final motion of censure in the National Assembly. The end of a journey marked by recourse to 49.3 by the government, to escape the crossfire of the oppositions.
It was in front of an almost deserted hemicycle that Elisabeth Borne activated the criticized constitutional tool one last time on Friday to pass this text without a vote – her 20th use in total since she led the government.
“It’s a budget of 640 billion euros for our social model, these are increasing resources for our health, for the autonomy of the elderly and people with disabilities,” argued the Prime Minister, in a lightning speech lasting less than two minutes.
Unsurprisingly, LFI immediately responded by announcing the tabling of a motion of censure, co-signed by almost all of the deputies from the left-wing groups, ignoring their divisions for the occasion. She must be examined Monday from 10:30 a.m. at the Palais Bourbon.
“The representatives of the nation were systematically prevented from debating,” deplore the signatories. They denounce a use “all the more revolting” of 49.3 as it constitutes a “forcible passage on a text which, basically, unravels Social Security and brutalizes our public hospital and its caregivers”.
Like the previous ones, this motion should be rejected, even if all the oppositions disapprove of this Social Security financing bill (PLFSS) for 2024, which they consider insufficient.
The Les Républicains (LR) group, whose votes would be necessary to bring down the government, in fact excludes doing so on a budgetary text.
– Free condoms –
The Senate, dominated by the right, adopted a largely revised version of this budget, contesting in particular a financial trajectory considered unrealistic. But the government rejected most of its additions.
The Social Security deficit, now estimated at 8.7 billion for 2023, would reach 10.5 billion for all branches combined in 2024, according to the latest estimates from the government, which contests any “austerity”.
The accounts are particularly weighed down by health insurance expenses. The government plans to contain their increase to +3.2%, thanks to savings measures on spending on medicines, analysis laboratories and even sick leave.
Some are particularly tense, such as the possibility of suspending an insured person’s compensation when a doctor mandated by the employer judges his work stoppage to be unjustified, or the reduction in reimbursement in the event of refusal of shared medical transport.
Other measures in this PLFSS are more consensual, such as free condoms for those under 26 or the reimbursement of reusable periodic protection for women under 26.
To put a stop to the loss of revenue linked to exemptions from contributions, the government adopted a proposal from its majority freezing the thresholds for the highest eligible salaries. A measure considered too timid by the left.
– “Decision not made” on franchises –
Two files hovered over the parliamentary debates, without even appearing in the text.
After threatening a drain on the reserves of the Agirc-Arrco supplementary pension scheme, managed by the social partners, the government ended up backing down.
Without giving up asking for this scheme to participate in the revaluation of small pensions, the executive decided to rely on negotiations between employers and unions.
He even accepted that it should be clarified that the contribution of Agirc-Arrco mentioned in this PLFSS was strictly linked to the extinction of the special regimes, therefore unrelated to the broader contribution that he expects elsewhere.
The possible increase in medical deductibles and flat-rate contributions for policyholders, envisaged by the government without being formalized in this budget, has also crystallized the debates.
“The decision has not been made,” assured Health Minister Aurélien Rousseau, assessing the impact of the measure at “17 euros per year on average” for policyholders.
At the request of the Senate, the government agreed to seek an opinion from Parliament’s social affairs committees before any modification of these remaining charges.
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