#EAPM: #Macron to be congratulated but where now for French health care?

A great many in Europe - certainly those who are committed to the European Union - are, this week, breathing huge sighs of relief, writes European Alliance for Personalised Medicine (EAPM) Executive Director Denis Horgan. 

On Sunday, Emmanuel Macron convincingly defeated the far-right Marine Le Pen in the French Presidential election by 66.1% to 33.9%.  Le Pen had threatened to pull out of the single currency and hold a Brexit-style in/out referendum. That will now not happen and, after his victory, the centrist Macron said: “Tonight you won, France won.”

He added that he will be “fighting the forces of division that undermine France”.  The European Commission President, Jean-Claude Juncker, went on Twitter to say that he was “happy that the French chose a European future”. Meanwhile, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Macron's win represented a "victory for a strong, united Europe”.

Russian president Vladimir Putin and his American counterpart Donald Trump also sent out positive signals on learning of the result.  For her part, after garnering around 11 million votes (almost twice the number her father Jean-Marie gained in 2002), Le Pen said the election had divided "patriots and globalists”. With one-third of the vote, she has a point.

However, far-right populists have now lost elections in Austria, the Netherlands and France, and it appears that, at least for now, the levels of nationalism and dislike for the EU are no longer as high, although key issues such as immigration and unemployment will not be going away any time soon.

Macron, a former investment banker and just 39-years-old, leads the fledgling party ‘En Marche’ which currently has no parliamentary seats, although those elections are coming up next month.   The truth of the matter is that despite the size of his victory, many voters reluctantly voted for Macron so as to stop his opponent. He has many challenges, all of which he acknowledges.

“My responsibility will be to unite all the women and men ready to take on the tremendous challenges which are waiting for us, and to act,” he has said. “I will fight with all my power against the divisions that undermine us, and which are tearing us apart.”

France, a founding member of the EU, has a distinct identity among the EU-28 and desperately needs the unity of which Macron speaks. So, incidentally, does the 320-million strong United States, which is arguably seeing its identity unravelling at the moment with left and right poles apart.

They are arguably seeing eye-to-eye on virtually nothing (except, possibly, Trump’s health-care plans which are still on the move, just, but may well be scuppered at Senate level). Surely the US will recover its common identity for the benefit of its own citizenry (not to mention everyone else on the planet), and the same can be said, or at least hoped for, for France.

The pro-business new president may have to form a coalition to push through promised reforms that include making a 120,000 reduction in public-sector jobs (while bringing down the overall unemployment rate to under 7%) and cutting public spending by a whopping €60 billion. He’s also pledged to ease labour laws and offer new protection to self-employed citizens.

Regarding health care, Macron has previously said: “We have a system of excellent care. But in addition, the vaccination rate is the lowest in Europe, consumption of antibiotics and psychotropic drugs is the highest in Europe…(with)…obesity three times higher among workers.” Much to be done, then.

It will be interesting to see where his promised cuts in public spending will be made. The Brussels-based European Alliance for Personalised Medicine (EAPM) sincerely hopes that they will not have an impact on healthcare, although most similar strategies historically have done.

The UK, which is about to start negotiating its departure from the EU, seems to be in denial about the wretched state of its National Health Service and is basically selling it off piece-by-piece to private companies. Hopefully, Macron will put the healthcare of his citizens a lot higher up than Westminster currently appears to be doing.

Not only in France and the UK, but in the whole of Europe, health care faces massive challenges. The medical advances of the past decades have ensured that people generally live longer but that has brought its own problems: the chances are that people will suffer from not just one, but several chronic diseases late in life, leading to a heavier burden on the healthcare services which is difficult to pay for given the pensions gap caused by a smaller, young workforce.

EAPM believes that, while health care is a member state competence, the EU has a duty to work harder in bringing the best treatment available to all its potential 500 million patients. This can only be achieved by there being a united Europe, and for his part the pro-EU Macron is by far a better alternative than the nationalistic Le Pen.

Citizens, in the same way as member state leaders, will always have their differences of opinion, but the trick is to work together for the betterment of everyone’s lives.   Health means wealth: Emmanuel Macron will know that. So let us hope that, from his new residency in the Elysée Palace, he uses that knowledge to promote the sort of medical research and development that will be effective across France and even encourage those countries beyond its borders by breathing a new sense of purpose into the EU.

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