The Senate approved on Monday, with the support of the government, a reduction of 200 million euros in the budget allocated to state medical aid (AME) intended for undocumented immigrants, calling for consideration of a structural reform, already promised by Michel Barnier if he resists censure.
In parallel with the lively debates in the National Assembly, where the government is targeted by a motion of censure on its social security budget, the upper house continues to examine another budgetary text, the state budget. Even if all the debates could stop if the government falls.
Supporting the executive, the Senate and its right-wing and centrist majority have thus adopted a significant measure by reducing the AME by 200 million euros, out of a total of 1.3 billion, an increase of more than 9% compared to 2024.
The right and the centrists voted for it, the left and the Macronist group opposed it, for a total of 201 votes against 126.
"This proposal is a first response to curb an expenditure that continues to grow each year," said LR senator Marie-Do Aeschlimann.
On the substance, the Senate did not proceed with the reduction of the scope of care eligible for AME, a persistent demand of the right and the extreme right.
The measure voted by the senators is limited to modifying the coverage of "non-urgent" services, which would now be conditional on a systematic "prior agreement" from Health Insurance. But the right and the centrists have called for going further in the coming weeks.
Health Minister Genevieve Darrieussecq gave a favourable opinion on this development, while calling for not "losing sight of the country's health needs".
"The AME budget must participate, like all other budgets, in the national effort to rationalize spending," she explained.
Prime Minister Michel Barnier announced in recent days that he would initiate a reform of AME "as early as next year", by "significantly" reducing the "basket of care" covered.
The left strongly opposed this measure.
"The government wanted to sacrifice state medical aid to satisfy the extreme right. It will be censured and dishonoured," said the president of the socialist senators, Patrick Kanner, indignantly.
"When I hear the government say that it is considering, in its generosity, reducing the AME by 200 million, I tell myself that we are making fun of people, especially when at the same time it was considering dereimbursing medication. This is not acceptable," reacted the leader of the RN deputies Marine Le Pen.
In 2024, the AME envelope provided by the State represented approximately 0.5% of the health expenditure provided for in the Social Security budget (PLFSS). According to a study by the Institute for Research and Documentation in Health Economics (Irdes), 51% of eligible people benefit from AME.
English 
French