At the end of the "Pink October" operation, the Senate unanimously supported on Wednesday a communist bill aimed at improving the management of breast cancer care, in order to reduce the remaining cost to patients, experienced as a "double punishment".
Adapted physical activity, dietetic consultations, hair and breast prostheses... While more than 60,000 new cases are diagnosed each year, breast cancer places many women in a fragile financial situation, between an often high out-of-pocket cost and numerous expenses relating to additional care - and not reimbursed - or the purchase of accessories (adapted underwear, creams, nail polish against nail loss, etc.).
Faced with this situation, communist parliamentarians have proposed in recent months to institute "full" coverage of all care related to this disease, responsible for 12,000 deaths per year in the country, and whose financial burden for patients would be between 1,300 and 2,500 euros according to the League against cancer.
Adopted unanimously by the National Assembly at the end of May, Fabien Roussel's bill suffered the same fate in the upper house, dominated by an alliance of the right and the centre which also supported the text, while refocusing it on more specific treatments for this pathology.
"One less injustice for women facing breast cancer," the PCF leader said on X after the vote.
"We will go all the way to ensure that justice is done for these women so that they do not have the double penalty of illness and too much remaining to pay," insisted Senator Cathy Apourceau-Poly, who is bringing this text to the upper house, shortly before.
- Compromise -
In the midst of a period of awareness-raising through the "Pink October" operation, the government gave a "very positive opinion of wisdom" on this text, nevertheless calling for "drafting adaptations" during the rest of the parliamentary shuttle.
The Minister Delegate for the Family, Agnes Canayer, particularly feared the "calling into question of a fundamental principle, that of the equity of our health system".
The LR president of the Senate's Social Affairs Committee, Philippe Mouiller, made the same observations.
But a compromise, approved by all groups in the Upper House, emerged in the upper house to refocus the text on the coverage of "costs deemed specific to breast cancer", such as the renewal of breast implants, the purchase of suitable underwear or so-called "supportive" care such as suitable physical activity.
On the other hand, the exemption for patients from paying "flat-rate contributions" and "medical deductibles" due to consultations and other paramedical acts finally disappeared from the text via the adoption of an amendment from the right.
– Emotion in the hemicycle –
"We now have a legally tightened text, which corresponds to a real need, and with legal vectors applicable as soon as possible. These are the best conditions for a text of law to be able to last" during a second reading in the National Assembly, appreciated Mr. Mouiller.
The Senate has also proposed a financing solution via the creation of a "specific package" dedicated to accessories and other cosmetics currently not reimbursed by Social Security, and a cap on excess fees for all consultations or interventions present in the patient's pathway.
"I would have liked us to go further (...) but I think that there are some definite advances in this text," acknowledged Ms. Apourceau-Poly.
The debates in the afternoon aroused strong emotion during certain speeches, such as that of the socialist senator Corinne Feret, who had to suppress a few sobs when discussing "the unjust inequalities" suffered by women suffering from breast cancer.
Senator for Oise Sylvie Valente Le Hir (related to LR) also upset her colleagues by admitting that she herself had "gone through this ordeal" of breast cancer. "If we can alleviate the material constraints of people with cancer, we will have already taken a big step towards helping them recover," she said.
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