Europe 1 with AFP / Photo credit: EMMANUEL DUNAND / AFP 5:07 p.m., January 30, 2024

Gabriel Attal announced on Tuesday a reform "before the summer" and "by regulatory means" of State Medical Aid (AME), health coverage reserved for undocumented immigrants. Élisabeth Borne had promised it to the right during the negotiations on the immigration bill.

Prime Minister Gabriel Attal announced on Tuesday a reform "before the summer" and "by regulatory means" of State Medical Aid (AME), health coverage reserved for undocumented immigrants, during his general policy speech . The head of government assured the deputies that he would keep "the commitment" of his predecessor Elisabeth Borne "to reform State medical aid": The former Prime Minister had promised this to the right during the negotiations on the immigration bill, if the opposition renounced within the framework of this text the establishment of "emergency medical aid" to replace the AME.

“We will do it before the summer by regulatory means”, on the basis of the report by former PS minister Claude Evin and Patrick Stefanini, LR figure, he said. The latter submitted, at the beginning of December, a report at the request of the government on the AME, a political sea serpent which provides for full coverage of health costs granted to foreigners in an irregular situation present in France for at least three months and under conditions of resources.

“Useful health device” 

In their report which should serve as a framework for the future reform, demanded for years by the right and the extreme right, the rapporteurs qualify the AME as a "useful health system" and "generally controlled", but which "deserves to be to be adapted". Claude Evin and Patrick Stefanini propose strengthening controls and “eligibility criteria”, particularly with regard to family situation, even if the system does not present “structural abuse or fraud”.

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The AME gives the right to 100% coverage, on a basket of care slightly more restricted than that of the general health insurance scheme: medical, hospital and maternity-related costs are covered, but those relating to cures spas or medically assisted procreation are excluded. At the end of 2023, 466,000 people benefited from it.