Eleven former ministers rejected Sébastien Lecornu’s proposal for regional health bodies

On Friday, the Prime Minister declared himself in favor of “deep reform” of the ARS, the state’s armed branch in the region to enforce health policy, and advocated the transfer of skills for the benefit of prefects and departments.

They stand together. Eleven former Health Ministers, including eight under Emmanuel Macron, applied pressure, at a forum on World, Sébastien Lecornu’s proposal to transfer some of the skills of regional health agencies (ARS) to the department. “We have to ask questions” especially regarding delegation to departments “community awareness planning” mentioned by the Prime Minister, wrote these former ministers, Tuesday 18 November.

Signatories to the platform are Claude Evin, Roselyne Bachelot, Marisol Touraine, Agnès Buzyn, Olivier Véran, François Braun, Aurélien Rousseau, Agnès Firmin Le Bodo, Geneviève Darrieussecq, Frédéric Valletoux and Yannick Neuder. Catherine Vautrin, the current Minister of the Armed Forces, is the only Health Minister Emmanuel Macron who is not among the signatories.

On Friday, Sébastien Lecornu declared himself in favor of a “deep reform” of the ARS, the State’s armed agency in the region to enforce public health policy, and advocate the transfer of skills for the benefit of prefects and departmental councils. “Can we imagine the department taking policy control to encourage the placement of liberal professionals? Regulating first access to emergencies (…)?”asked the signatories.

“Can we imagine the territorial inequality that such an approach could generate, the impact on clients, local barons?”they continued. “In addition, and this is serious, by implementing the partial transfer of general social contributions (CSG) and the parallel attribution of health competencies to departments, the Prime Minister is violating the main principle of Social Security since 1945”they added.

“Are we sure we want to take the medico-social policies of the departments currently operating as a model?”they wrote again, targeting in particular orphanages for people with disabilities (MDPH) or social assistance for children (ASE), which are often the targets of harsh criticism.