“Quick, an old age law”, demanded the Socialist deputies on Tuesday by presenting their own text in the face of a Macronist bill which they consider “tinkered” and without ambition.
It’s been a while since we’ve been dragged on the subject, denounced the deputy of Essonne Jrme Guedj in front of the press. This elected PS calls for the mobilization of parliamentarians from different sides to impose a balance of power on the executive.
With his socialist colleagues, he has just tabled a bill of 166 articles, an object of interpellation of the government to try to obtain a major reform devoted to the aging of the population.
Among other measures, the Socialists propose to establish as quickly as possible a management ratio in nursing homes, at least 0.8 staff member for a resident, with the target of going towards 1 to 1.
Emmanuel Macron’s timid commitment is 50,000 additional positions for the five-year term in nursing homes. And in the first social security finance bill (PLFSS) last fall, it is only 3,000 positions in 2023, Jrme Guedj pointed out.
The socialist bill also wants to empower the president of the Departmental Council to cap accommodation prices in nursing homes and set up a modulation according to income.
In the longer term, the PS deputies also want to settle the eternal question of governance by proposing the merger of the care and dependency sections of nursing homes and placing them under the aegis of the regional health agencies.
In order not to dispossess the departments, the socialist deputies would like to strengthen their prerogatives over the entire sector of homes and grouped housing, because there needs to be a change of gear on inclusive housing, according to Jrme Guedj.
The deputy estimates the cost of his proposed law at 10 billion euros per year and emphasizes its intergenerational nature with jobs that cannot be relocated in the link professions.
What hangs in our face is a crisis of aging. From now on, this demographic transition must be a priority, he claims.
The Socialists will defend some of their measures by amendment in the debate on a Renaissance bill on aging well, the examination of which starts in the Assembly.
But this text of the presidential majority is an amateur tinkering, they believe, after the abandonment in open country of the reform dedicated to old age regularly promised by the executive.