“a public health system”
State medical aid (AME), which the Senate wants to abolish, is “a public health system” and “we will never switch to an emergency medical aid type system”, assured Sunday the Minister of Health Aurélien Rousseau on France info.
Some 3,500 employed and self-employed doctors, opposed to the abolition of the AME intended for undocumented immigrants, undertake to “disobey” and “continue to provide treatment for free” these patients if the device were to disappear, in an appeal sent on Saturday.
“A huge mistake”
“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 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 Gerald Darmanin, who said he was “personally” in favor of a reform of the system before the start of examination of the text, finally hoped at the end of the week “that the reform of the AME would not be in the final adopted text » after the passage to the National Assembly in December, indicated his entourage. “The government is totally aligned”, “we will never switch to an emergency medical aid type system”, assured Aurélien Rousseau.
Drug shortage
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.
Rousseau 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.
