At the end of more than a year of work and sometimes heated discussions, the bill to modernize the health system has just been definitively adopted by the National Assembly.
“This text guarantees everyone’s access to quality care. It is a text against stagnation and resignation. It is a text which aims to offer everyone the same rights, the same opportunities, to live the as long as possible in good health “, declared Marisol Touraine after the vote on the bill.
The minister did not finally give in on any of the two points that created tension: the generalization of third-party payment, flagship measure of this bill which has crystallized for months the anger of some general practitioners will therefore be a right for all French people at the end of 2017. Similarly, the pack of neutral cigarettes, criticized by tobacconists, will be implemented at the same time as the obligation to present proof of majority for the purchase of tobacco. On the other hand, it granted parliamentarians the substantial relaxation of the Evin law governing the promotion of alcoholic beverages.
Once the Constitutional Council has delivered its opinion on the law, it can be officially promulgated by the end of next January. Depending on the publication of the decrees and orders, the various measures should gradually come into force throughout the next year.
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