NOTWe, nurses of all disciplines and all backgrounds, want to firmly and unitedly oppose the plan to abolish state medical assistance (AME) in favor of a degraded system.

AME is a social assistance that enables foreign people in an irregular administrative situation to have access to medical care. This is an anti-exclusion tool available only to people whose income is less than 810 euros per month and who can prove permanent residence in France.

The vast majority of the patients we treat and who benefit from AME are not people who have emigrated to France for treatment, but rather people who have fled poverty, insecurity or for family reasons. Due to their difficult living conditions in France, they are exposed to significant risks: physical and mental health problems, chronic illnesses, communicable or contagious diseases, inadequate prenatal care and an increased risk of maternal death.

Diagnostic delays

Therefore, it is a public health priority population. Restricting their access to health care would directly result in a deterioration in their health, but also in that of the entire population in general. This is shown by the unfortunate example of Spain: the restriction on access to health care for foreigners in an irregular situation, adopted in 2012, led to an increase in the incidence of infectious diseases and excessive mortality. This reform was finally repealed in 2018.

We, the frontline nurses, are extremely concerned about the idea of ​​having to provide care in a health system without AME because of the risk of paralysis. Undocumented foreigners would have no choice but to turn to health care centers (PASS) and reception and emergency services, which are already weakened and under pressure would once again be forced to bear the consequences of political decisions that are far removed from our reality.

There are already numerous barriers to accessing care for these patients. Further exclusion could only result in them forgoing care and worsening their health. The distance from the healthcare system ultimately leads to delays in diagnosis, imbalance and exacerbation of chronic diseases, and the occurrence of complications. The use of care is urgent in this context, since it requires complex and lengthy hospital stays, sometimes in intensive care, in already weakened structures and ultimately at a much higher cost to the community, without the expected difficulties of transferring these patients to the Forget care and rehabilitation that require health insurance.

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