The “second wave” will further increase the bill: the National Assembly votes on Tuesday, October 27, a draft budget for the Social Security where the Covid-19 has widened abysmal deficits, which may still worsen in the face of the epidemic rebound.
Read also: MPs look at an unbalanced Social Security budget
"We are on the north face of Everest in the middle of winter, the visibility is really bad,"
Minister of Health Olivier Véran acknowledged on Tuesday by opening the first reading examination of this bill to finance security (PLFSS) for 2021. Concrete translation: the minister asked for an extension this year of 2.4 billion to help health establishments, in particular the opening of beds
"on demand"
in hospitals facing an exponential increase cases of Covid-19.
This money must also be used to honor the commitment of Prime Minister Jean Castex to advance to December salary increases for the “Ségur de la santé” and an “overvaluation” of overtime for personnel affected by the first epidemic wave, to which an additional effort is again requested.
LR deputies denounced the lack of resources in the face of this new increase in expenditure:
"all this is only debt for our children"
.
The left for its part considered that the rise in wages was
"the least of things"
, and still
"far from the account"
.
Read also: "Historic" agreements to revalue hospital salaries
Already weighed down by lower income from taxes and contributions as well as by exponential expenditure, the Social Security deficit is deteriorating even further because of this new envelope: 46.6 billion euros this year and some 28 billion in 2021. This slate does not take into account the recent curfews decreed, at this stage, in 54 departments and in Polynesia.
So the draft budget could already be obsolete.
The return to equilibrium is compromised for several years.
Particularly in bad shape, the health insurance branch has planned to fund 4.3 billion for masks, tests and work stoppages, including 1.5 billion for a vaccination campaign.
Under the reforms, the bill enacts a new "package" of 18 euros for patients going to the emergency room without then being hospitalized, which was validated despite strong reservations from the left.
The package, which will replace the current user fee, is a simplification measure that
"does not bring anything"
to the security, insists the minister.
Read also: Emergencies: the new paid package for patients validated by the Assembly
The financing of the new
“autonomy”
branch
, which brings together a large part of the credits intended for dependent or disabled elderly people, has also provoked lively debate.
The majority and the government have supported a
“first step”
in a long-term project for better care for the elderly, with an additional 2.5 billion euros in 2021 for the modernization of nursing homes in particular.
Too little for the oppositions, who denounce a simple
"ripolinage" in the
face of the challenge of aging: in 2040, nearly 15% of French people (10.6 million people) will be 75 years or older.
In one of the rare moments of unanimity, the deputies however voted an envelope of 150 million euros in 2021 then 200 million from 2022, to increase the salaries of home helpers, who were essential during the first wave with the elderly.
Another consensual moment: the deputies gave the green light to the doubling of paternity leave, from fourteen to twenty-eight days, of which seven are compulsory, from next July 1.
Long claimed by feminist activists, unions and many fathers, the measure was unveiled in September by Emmanuel Macron.
Read also: Paternity leave will be reduced to 28 days, including "seven days" mandatory
Via a parliamentary amendment, the mandatory third party payment for abortion has also been approved.
But Olivier Véran renewed his reservations about the recent desire of deputies to increase the legal deadline for aborting from twelve to fourteen weeks of pregnancy.
Read also: Extension of the legal deadline for abortion: the deputies adopt the bill
The majority generally praises an
“ambitious”
and
“
moving forward”
bill
.
But the oppositions should not be pronounced in his favor.
The right wing criticizes a series of
"missed opportunities"
, from the lack of structural health measures to the lack of vision on family policy.
On the left, parliamentarians deplore an
“accounting vision of health”
.
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