Paris (AFP)

With a deficit of more than 5 billion euros, the draft budget 2020 Social Security arrives on Tuesday in the Senate majority right, two days before the "big event" of hospital staff in Paris.

Defended by the government as a text of "responsibility" that protects "the most vulnerable", the draft Social Security financing bill will be, after the National Assembly, considered in first reading all week by senators, before a solemn vote next Tuesday. It must be definitively adopted by the end of December.

This budget forecasts a deficit of 5.1 billion next year, with an increase in health expenditure (Ondam) limited to 2.3% (2.1% for the hospital), when their natural progression would be rather order of 4.5%.

It also provides for a revaluation limited to 0.3% of most social benefits with the exception of the pensions of the most modest pensioners.

This draft budget is considered "not up to the challenges" by the group Republicans, "out of time" by the Socialists.

It is part of a crisis of the public hospital, with a day of mobilization scheduled for Thursday, and the promise by the Minister of Health Agnès Buzyn of a new plan of support, with "associated means", expected "in the course of November".

For the first time, senators decided to "suspend" the adoption of the article setting the national target for health expenditure (Ondam) for 2020, saying it would "make no sense", in the waiting for new government announcements.

Reacting to Sunday News on the "secret war" of Health Minister Agnès Buzyn, Senate Committee on Social Affairs Chairman Alain Milon (LR) asked the government to "quickly bring forward amendments to the PLFSS ".

"It is unfortunate that the agenda seems only dictated by the strike of November 14 at the time the Senate is pronounced precisely on these topics," he added in a statement.

- Retirement at age 64 -

Senators are also alarmed by the "hole" of the Secu.

Alain Milon denounces a deficit created by the state that chooses not to compensate for "non-revenue" decided by the government to respond to the crisis of "yellow vests" (reduced rate of CSG for some retirees, exemption of hours additional ...).

"Sprains" to the principle of compensation that senators removed in committee, LR sees "an abolition of the remaining autonomy" of the Secu, the PS denouncing "a blow very strong to the philosophy" of the French system of social protection .

As last year, senators opposed in committee "the under-revaluation" pensions of some retirees and social benefits and family. "The family is the adjustment variable of the PLFSS", regrets the rapporteur of the family branch Elisabeth Doineau (centrist).

The issue of pensions is another matter of concern for senators, this time with a right-left divide. To the dismay of the left, LR senators will once again propose to raise the age of retirement, at age 64, against 63 years last year, to try to cope with the deficit of the branch Old Age "which is growing year by year ".

Among the other measures in the draft budget, senators gave their approval in committee for the creation of a three-month compensated leave for caregivers supporting an elderly, ill or handicapped loved one, as well as for the mechanism allowing allowances to play the role of intermediary for the payment of maintenance

Green light also to the establishment of a path of care for the support of patients after cancer and a compensation fund for victims of pesticides.

Green light still at a tax on "premix" wine and experimentation of the medical use of cannabis. On the other hand, the committee opposed the removal of the obligation to provide a medical certificate when registering for a sports activity for children.

The amendments adopted in committee will have to be reopened in the hemicycle.

© 2019 AFP