HAS On the occasion of the examination of the immigration law, the Senate voted in the first reading the conversion of state medical assistance (AME) into emergency medical assistance (AMU), an obligation which, moreover, is contained in the various texts of international law in the chapter on the right to health. This shock measure is presented as a sign of great determination that would reduce our country’s attractiveness in terms of illegal immigration and the costs associated with it. A Survey for The study by the CSA Institute for Cnews, carried out in September and October 2023, would show that the French would be overwhelmingly in favor. It would still be necessary to seriously explain the implications of such a decision.

Health groups have already written all about the risks that such restrictions on access to health care pose to public health, particularly to prevent the spread of infectious diseases, and the extent to which this obsession with eliminating AME is surprising, considering that Elected officials regularly announce their commitment to prevention and the public hospital. But it is appropriate to explain why our health system, already under pressure, will be the first to suffer and, above all, why it merely represents a postponement of the problem or even its eradication.

The AME allows people in an irregular situation with few means, below a certain ceiling and staying in the territory for more than three months – this criterion was added in 2019 to reduce the risk of medical tourism – to benefit from the social security possibility, to seek treatment in the city or in the hospital. Comfort, aesthetic or infertility treatments are already excluded.

This system, according to some, would be an incentive to come to France. Perhaps… even if there are no studies today that would allow us to understand the role of such an advantage in the departure of people from their countries of origin, its place in relation to other benefits or, quite simply, in view of the desire to come there and live in or pass through a peaceful country. But even admitting that it is an incentive for some does not change the foreseeable consequences of its abolition.

Suppress without treating

Let’s not take the moral side or even the public health side. Let’s just draw the line from this proposal, which directly collides with reality. With the new AMU system, a measure that, according to the senators of Les Républicains, will combine firmness and humanity, no chronic illness can benefit from treatment, so no incentive to travel is created. This means that these illegal migrants cannot be treated by a city doctor because they lack the means to pay for consultation or treatment at the pharmacy. All sick people, regardless of whether their pathology is urgent or not, or even already known and long-standing, will present themselves at the hospital in advance and be admitted by the emergency room or the consultation services.

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