- Sunday, Agnès Buzyn announced that she was leaving her ministry of Solidarity and Health to replace Benjamin Griveaux in the battle for the municipal elections in Paris.
- It is Olivier Véran, former LREM deputy from Isère, who is particularly familiar with health and retirement issues, who has replaced her since Monday morning.
- Pensions, coronavirus, bioethics… The new minister will have a large number of hot files to deal with.
Work to be done. The new Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, formerly LREM deputy for Isère, will not be unemployed. Agnes Buzyn left a department in turmoil to replace Benjamin Griveaux as a candidate for the majority party for the municipal elections in Paris. Hospital in crisis, risk of epidemic with the coronavirus and parliamentary debate on the highly contested pension reform as of this Monday ... Olivier Véran will have very little time to go through all these files. But he said it Sunday evening at the microphone of France Bleu: "I am prepared to exercise these responsibilities. There will be no warm-up period, as they say. "
Find here the live handover of power
Pension reform
Appointed in the morning, then in the cauldron, to defend the pension reform, from the afternoon. The new minister will not waste time, since the examination of the pension reform begins this Monday at 4 p.m. But former deputy LREM knows this file well: he was rapporteur for the organic part of this reform, that on financial balance.
The government hopes to conclude the debates before the municipal elections and deliver the reform before the summer. The fact remains that the opposition has not said its last word: 41,000 amendments have been tabled. Treating them in two weeks is a challenge. But a third week of debate is not excluded. The exchanges promise to be stormy after several weeks of demonstrations and strikes in transport and educational establishments. This morning, during the handover, the new minister allowed himself a little irony: “I would like to tell parliamentarians that I will be listening to them. I'll just be a little more to the left… ”
The coronavirus
In addition to long-term files, Agnès Buzyn leaves the ship in the middle of a coronavirus storm. Since mid-January, the ex-minister made an almost daily press point to deliver herself the latest information on the contaminations and other repatriations. The toll of the epidemic of viral pneumonia Covid-19 has further increased in mainland China with now 1,765 dead, mostly in Hubei province (center), according to official figures released Monday. In France, there are still 12 patients, so one died on Saturday, an 80-year-old Chinese tourist.
Agnes Buzyn, like her successor, tried to reassure citizens in their speeches Monday morning. The epidemic of new coronavirus remains "the number 1 priority" of the Ministry of Health, assured Olivier Véran. "I will share with the French all the information I have, (...) I will continue to make regular reports on the situation", as the former minister did from the start.
The unprecedented public hospital crisis
It is not only on the epidemic front that Olivier Véran is expected. While some paramedics have been on strike in the emergency room for almost a year, the entire public hospital is now crying out. A first national demonstration took place in November, a second last Friday, while the three plans for emergencies announced by Agnès Buzyn did not calm the troops. For some of these caregivers at the public hospital, this resignation is a form of contempt. "We are taking away the captain of the ship in the middle of a storm," reacted to LCI Patrick Pelloux, president of the Association of Emergency Physicians (Amuf). Will the new minister succeed in calming the discontent? Some recall that he was the rapporteur for the Social Security Financing Bill for 2020, which had not planned to loosen the strings of the national target for health insurance spending (Ondam).
Saying to listen to those who care, Olivier Véran announced "a national survey" among all of the "hospital" to "try to capture in detail the meaning of their commitment to the public and the reasons for the discomfort they have been telling us for a number of years now. ” What makes the Inter-Hospitals collective smile. In a press release, he said that "for four months, the Ministry of Health has been unable to provide anything other than good words. The change of contact does not change the claims in any way ”.
Just read everything that @InterUrg and the @CollectInterHop have written! https://t.co/94lB833kwO
- INTER-HOPITAUX COLLECTIF (@CollectInterHop) February 17, 2020However, at the Intersyndicale des internees (Insi), the arrival at the ministry of this former member of the house awakens some hope. To the point of suspending, from Wednesday, the strike of the interns initiated on December 10.
CoP - Resignation of @agnesbuzyn and appointment of his successor, @olivierveran
We are here to remind him of the ministry's promises and the demands of #interns #worktime!
As a sign of opening, the strike notice is lifted from Wednesday, February 19. pic.twitter.com/DHW25Rp6As
The revision of the bioethics law
This is a file that has been dragging on for several months and for which Agnès Buzyn has wet the shirt. After a long public consultation, the bill has already passed through the National Assembly and was passed on February 4, just in time, by senators. The text, which will return to the National Assembly at second reading, was voted by 153 votes for, 143 votes against and 45 abstentions at the Palais du Luxembourg.
Not without significant modifications of the text: the PMA would be well authorized for couples of lesbians and single women, but would not be reimbursed. The Senate also deleted the article authorizing the self-preservation of gametes. The dates of the return to the Meeting are not yet known, but there is no doubt that Olivier Véran will also have to deal with finesse in this explosive societal subject.
Old age and dependence
It is a sea serpent that Agnes Buzyn will not have had time to deal with. While Emmanuel Macron had promised a long-awaited "old age and autonomy law" before the end of 2019, it has been postponed many times. But was well on the calendar of the reforms announced by Edouard Philippe at the start of this year, for the summer of 2020. Following the announcement of the departure of Agnès Buzyn, the professionals of old age and dependency have shown themselves worried. The general delegate of Synerpa (bringing together the main private players in nursing homes), Florence Arnaiz-Maumé, believes in a press release that "this reshuffle should not be done at the expense of the law on old age and autonomy".
The number of seniors losing their autonomy, which was 2.5 million in 2015, could reach 4 million in 2050, according to INSEE. And the protest movement of the public hospital does not spare the Ehpad…
Politics
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Paris
Municipal in Paris: Agnès Buzyn succeeds Benjamin Griveaux to revive a sinking campaign
- Government
- Pension reform
- Bioethics law
- Society
- Health
- Agnes Buzyn
- Hospital
- Olivier Véran