The proposed law on “measures to build a society of healthy aging and autonomy” has arrived at the end of a long parliamentary journey. During a final vote in the Senate, Parliament definitively adopted, on Wednesday March 27, a law for “aging well”, without masking its concerns regarding the future of the autonomy sector, still deprived of a law of financial programming on old age, which has been promised for a long time.
After the National Assembly last week, the Senate overwhelmingly approved it, despite the abstention of socialists and ecologists and the opposition of communists. But the support given to this text is far from being a blank check for the government. On all benches, impatience has in fact won over parliamentarians who fear seeing the executive stick to this law deemed insufficient.
“It’s a placeholder”confirmed Senator Les Républicains (LR) Jean Sol, urging the government to “give stakeholders concrete visibility on the means that will be implemented” in the future.
Tense budgetary context
For many, the challenge of population aging calls for other, much more ambitious legislative vehicles: firstly, a multi-year programming law on old age. From 2030, in fact, there will be more people over 65 than those under 15…
“No one, neither me nor the entire government, has ever considered the adoption of this bill as the final settlement”assured the Minister for the Elderly, Fadila Khattabi, before the senators, promising to “debate” and from “draw all necessary consequences, including, of course, in the law”.
But the response is considered far too vague by the oppositions, while the promise of a major law on autonomy dates back to Emmanuel Macron’s first five-year term. Former Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne had even announced a text by the summer of 2024, but this commitment now seems obsolete.
In an extremely tense budgetary context, with an alarming increase in the deficit, the time seems to be for restraint on the government’s side. “We will not go directly to an “old age” law”recently confirmed a ministerial source, affirming that Mme Borne had made this promise “from a different economic perspective” And “in a perspective where she remained prime minister”.
However, an article of this law on “aging well” requires the government to present a multi-year programming law “every five years”with a first draft required “before December 31, 2024”…
Government silence
Nine parliamentary group leaders, including the president of the LR group in the Senate, Bruno Retailleau, also asked last week in an open letter to the Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal, a “solemn commitment, associated with a precise timetable, concerning the tabling and examination of this bill relating to old age”. No clear answer yet.
“The government is walled in silence”regretted the socialist Corinne Féret, whose group abstained, “sadly aware that everything we had promised no longer holds”. The communist group went further by voting against the text, considered “a communication call to give the illusion of progress on this issue”, according to Senator Cathy Apourceau-Poly.
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In the meantime, the autonomy sector will have to content itself with the various measures contained in this proposed law, such as the creation of a professional card in order to facilitate the recognition of the work of home workers, or the protection of visiting rights in nursing homes.
The text also provides for the creation of a departmental autonomy service, a “one-stop shop” For “decompartmentalize” policies in favor of the elderly and people with disabilities, and establishes a departmental body for reporting cases of mistreatment.
The right for residents in nursing homes to welcome their pet also appears in this law, provided that they are able to care for them. “ensure physiological, behavioral and medical needs”.