Doctor Is New French Health Minister

France's newly-appointed Health Minister, Elizabeth Hubert, who was 39 on May 26, is a general practitioner turned politician.

Mrs Hubert, who is a resolutely Chirac-centered Gaullist, has been a member of the National AIDS Council since March this year. She was a union activist during her student days in Nantes, and has been a leading light of the federation of medical unions, the CSMF.

However, the greatest interest for future French health policy is that both she and the new president, Jacques Chirac, have made public speeches recently attacking the health spending control policy of the former Balladur regime. Mrs Hubert launched her attack in the National Assembly last November. Even though she has been described as abrasive and authoritarian, and despite her recent utterances, the Health Minister is widely expected to become remarkably diplomatic and to preserve the delicate cost-containment agreements forged between the former Balladur government and the health care professionals.