As the municipal elections of March 15 and 22, 2026 approach, public meetings are coming one after the other, professions of faith are being prepared. Safety, cleanliness, traffic come up in conversations, but one subject now crosses all discussions, from the market to the doctor’s waiting room. Behind the figures and the promises, it is daily life that is at stake.
Recent surveys confirm this: for the French, health has become the first expectation of their future mayor. According to a survey carried out for France Assos Santé, 70% want as a priority an improvement in the provision of care and health services, while 7 million people live without a GP. Enough to push patients to question the candidates.
Municipal elections 2026: when health becomes the key criterion for voters
In this context, polls paint a mixed picture. Forty percent of residents say they encounter difficulties accessing care, a rate which rises to 50% in municipalities with less than 20,000 inhabitants, and 34% believe that the situation has deteriorated in their city. Only 53% consider the actions carried out by their municipality in terms of health to be satisfactory.
However, the French do not see their mayors as powerless. Seventy percent consider that the municipality has a role in health, 27% of whom consider this role central, and nearly one in two voters say that health proposals will influence their vote. And 92% say they want to be involved in local health decisions. In this climate, health becomes a credibility test for candidate teams.
The France Assos Santé manifesto and its 17 proposals to mayors
Faced with these expectations, the patients’ association France Assos Santéwhich brings together nearly 100 associations and 15,000 user representatives, published the manifesto “Health: a priority for residents, a lever for action for mayors”. This document, addressed to candidates and associations of local elected officials, brings together 17 proposals structured around two axes:
access to care and favorable environments.
Improving access to care
- Evaluate the needs of the population in their territory
- Encourage the arrival of student interns on their territory
- Create health centers and/or encourage the establishment of multi-professional health centers
- Improve the organization of the permanence of ambulatory care and unscheduled care
- Improving access to care for vulnerable populations
- Develop “the move towards” via teleconsultations coordinated with local stakeholders
- Carry out local digital mediation actions to guarantee access to rights and care
- Inform the public about the organization of the health system and existing systems for access to care
- Supporting people at the end of life
Promote prevention and health-promoting environments
- Ban alcohol advertising near schools, places frequented by children and places of care
- Become a partner of the January Challenge
- Implement controls and sanctions for establishments and distribution brands that do not respect the ban on the sale of alcohol to minors
- Limit advertising of junk food in public spaces, ban it in places frequented by children
- Slow down the establishment of fast food restaurants near schools
- Offering healthier and more sustainable food in collective catering
- Protecting children from the first 1,000 days
- Focus territorial planning and urban planning on the creation of environments favorable to the health and well-being of populations
To fight against medical deserts, France Assos Santé recommends that municipalities “encourage the arrival of student interns on their territory” And “create health centers and/or promote the establishment of multi-professional health centers (MSP)“. The manifesto also focuses on territorial health diagnoses, the organization of permanent care, coordinated teleconsultations, increased support for vulnerable or end-of-life populations and, on the prevention side, on food, alcohol or water quality.
Local levers and an appeal to voters for the 2026 municipal elections
France Assos Santé is aimed at both elected officials and residents. For the association, “If ambitious national policies are necessary to respond effectively to these health challenges, mayors have, at their level, a certain number of levers to act concretely“. She also calls on citizens to weigh in on the debate: “Before slipping your ballot into the box, France Assos Santé invites everyone to read the health program of the candidates running in their municipality“, and to remain committed throughout the mandate.