The government calls for a freeze on AME credits intended for undocumented immigrants

Michel Barnier’s team is backpedaling on the AME. The government finally said it was in favor on Tuesday of freezing funds allocated to State Medical Aid for undocumented immigrants.

Budget Minister Laurent Saint-Martin confirmed information from RMC according to which the government will table an amendment as part of Parliament’s examination of the 2025 budget so that AME expenditures no longer increase next year.

Retailleau prefers emergency medical aid

The draft budget presented last Thursday provided for an increase in AME credits of 8%, to 1.3 billion euros, compared to 1.2 in 2024, which had sparked protests among certain elected representatives of the National Rally, opposed to this increase. Questioned on BFMTV, Laurent Saint-Martin explained “that like all expenses we needed to know how to better control them”. While ensuring that the AME, “an issue of public health and humanity”, “would be preserved”.

On several occasions, the new Minister of the Interior, Bruno Retailleau, has said that he wanted to reform the AME and replace it with emergency medical aid with drastically reduced scope. During the early legislative campaign this summer, the RN indicated that it wanted to replace it with “vital emergency aid”.

466,000 beneficiaries at the end of 2023

State medical aid provides care for people in an irregular situation residing in France for more than three months, whose resources are low and do not qualify for coverage under the common law system. In 2024, the AME envelope planned by the State represented approximately 0.5% of the health expenditure planned by the Social Security budget (PLFSS). At the end of 2023, there were 466,000 AME beneficiaries.