The end of a long wait? This Monday, November 20, the National Assembly continues the examination of the bill for “aging well”, seven months after having stopped it due to lack of time available in the hemicycle. This text concerns more particularly the social aspect. It will notably make it possible to create a system to better report cases of mistreatment, or even a professional card for home help, supposed to “facilitate their daily work”.
It will also be an opportunity to enshrine in law the right to visit nursing homes, as recommended in a report submitted to the government. The inability to visit loved ones, or even say goodbye, during the Covid-19 crisis had created trauma for many families.
Before the deputies examine the question again, the government presented, Friday, November 17, its plans to adapt society to the aging of the population. The Minister of Solidarity Aurore Bergé promised that a programming law on old age would soon see the light of day, a project long requested by professionals in the sector and parliamentarians. “I heard” their request, she declared during a speech at the Ministry of Solidarity. The executive also takes into consideration the following observation: in 2030, 20 million French people will be over 60 years old. For the first time, there will be more people over 65 than those under 15. A demographic upheaval that calls for another overall vision.
“Chart a real course”
This future law “will set a framework, objectives to be achieved by 2030 and financing arrangements” so that France can face the increase in the number of elderly people losing their autonomy, the minister specified in an interview published In The cross Friday. “From a hope and a chance, aging is becoming a burden and an anguish,” she lamented in the daily columns. The old age law, promised by the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron at the start of his first five-year term, has been postponed many times before finally being abandoned. Aurore Bergé is committed to making it a success and assures that the government is “charting a real course”. Note that this programming law on old age benefits from a (rare) consensus between the majority and the opposition.
“The promise of a programming law” will not “improve the quality of life of our seniors”, however deplored the association of directors of nursing homes and home services (AD-PA), which demands ” additional resources.
The Minister of Solidarity also presented the government’s interministerial strategy on “aging well”, a long-term vision for adapting society to an older population. This strategy, which brings together numerous measures already announced, aims in particular to “take into account new needs”, specifies the ministry. The government wants to allow seniors to adapt their homes to stay there as long as possible, thanks to a bonus, called the “adapt bonus”, accessible to those over 70 from 2024. It also proposes to overhaul the system of residential services. home help and to move away from “the logic of hourly pricing”.
“An imprecise catalog”
Hugues Vidor, general director of Adedom, a federation which represents home help services, praised on X (formerly Twitter) “a clear desire to move the lines”. This will also make it easier for seniors to travel. The government plans in particular to finance the accessibility of small businesses via a fund and to strengthen the accessibility of stations.
Jean-Christophe Amarantinis, president of Synerpa, which brings together private nursing homes, welcomed “promising announcements” in a press release. The French Hospital Federation (FHF), which represents public nursing homes, also welcomed “strong” announcements, in particular the project to create a protocol to support establishments in the creation of 50,000 jobs by 2030. More shared, the associative nursing homes grouped within Uniopss welcome “some progress” but regret “too many unknowns”.
On the political side, the socialist deputy Jérôme Guedj deplored on X an “imprecise catalog of existing measures for the most part, without new financing”. Likewise, Yann Lasnier, general delegate of the association of Little Brothers of the Poor, regretted that there was “nothing concrete” among the measures presented.