Jan Jambon welcomes the restart of coalition talks at federal level, but “the refederalisation of healthcare is not on the table.”

“The refederalisation of healthcare is not on the table.” Flemish Minister-President Jan Jambon reacted cautiously positively in the Zevende Dag television programme to the new initiative to get the federal government negotiations going. However, he made it clear that turning back time is not an option for the N-VA.

Half measures

On the contrary, Jan Jambon wants responsibility for healthcare to go entirely to the federal states. “We started to regionalise the powers at the time because the north and south of the country looked at healthcare differently,” the Minister-President said. “The problems we are seeing today are the result of half measures.” According to Jan Jambon, the solution thus lies in completing the regionalisation instead of bringing everything back to the federal level. If one chooses the latter, the old discussions and blockages threaten to reappear.

Prevent a new lockdown

Speaking about the coronavirus crisis, Jambon said that we must make sure there is no second flare-up. “No economy can handle a second lockdown. Now that we are in a situation where we can test and have more contact follow-up, it should be possible to quarantine only people who are sick and infected instead of the whole of society. We have to be fully committed to that.”

Double recovery plan

Minister-President Jan Jambon also announced that the Flemish Government is working on a double recovery plan: an economic plan and a social plan. A group of experts, including economist Ive Marx and psychologist Wouter Duyck, will advise the government on this matter.”