PARIS, May 9 (APM) - Newly elected French president Emmanuel Macron wants to focus on three priorities in the health field - a "real and ambitious prevention policy", the "reduction of health inequalities" and "improving the cost-effectiveness of our health system, the appropriateness of care and its quality", according to his health advisor.
Macron's health advisor Olivier Véran was responding to a questionnaire sent by APM in the period between the two rounds of France's presidential election, which ended on Sunday with victory for the 'En Marche!' candidate with 66.06% of votes, against National Front representative Marine le Pen.
Among the first measures the new president intends to implement, Véran said that once a "trusty working relationship has been established with [healthcare] representatives", a project on medical time and care time would be launched, together with discussions on skills and training and the "shift to outpatient care".
Asked about the scope of the health ministry, Véran answered that this issue would be covered after the elections, although he noted that Macron wants a team of some 15 ministers at most.
The construction of the first social security budget should outline a change in financing methods, aiming to decompartmentalise approaches to the community, hospitals and medical and medico-social networks, he said.
Concerning prevention, he intends to set up a three-month community health service for all students in health-related areas, 40,000 of whom will carry out outreach work in schools and companies.
To combat inequalities, he promised not to delist any effective care over the coming five years and to reimburse glasses, dental prostheses and hearing aids in full by 2022.
He also promised greater autonomy for hospitals, through diversifying the ways of remunerating health professionals and financing hospitals throughout France. He intends to speed up the deployment of hospital groups (GHT), while improving the connections between them and other healthcare players.
To make the health system more cost-effective, Macron intends to generalise the dispensing of medicines by unit. In mid-April, he also said he wants to launch a consultation on the sale of medicines in outlets other than pharmacies.
His manifesto also includes promises to manage spending and health strategy over several years to ensure health players have better visibility and stability, and to commit to a five-year national target for health expenditure (ONDAM). Macron said he intends to limit growth of the ONDAM at 2.3% per year over 2018-2022.
He also announced he wants to set up a "fund for industry and innovation" endowed with 10 billion euros, with the objective of financing "the industry of the future" and encouraging pharmas to manufacture in France and disseminate innovation "more rapidly".
At the end of February, Macron had announced a five billion-euro health investment plan. He detailed the proposals in his manifesto published early in March. (APMMA 52969)
During a visit to Grenoble in mid-April, he had expressed his desire to have a single operator to launch calls for research and innovation projects. He earmarked the national research agency (ANR) for the purpose.
Macron said on Friday he had chosen his prime minister and would reveal the names of the members of his government after the handover due on May 13 or 14. The team will consist of a mixture of new faces and people with longstanding experience.
The names of the candidates of the newly renamed 'La République en marche' party for the general elections of June 11 and 18 are likely to be announced this week. The president-elect's capacity to push through his programmes will depend largely on the new party's ability to get these candidates elected.
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