Health: mutual insurance companies plan an 8.1% increase in their contributions

Europe 1 with AFP 07:36, December 19, 2023

Complementary health insurance with mutual status is planning an average increase of 8.1% in their contributions in 2024, an increase not seen in years, according to a survey by the Mutualité française published on Tuesday.

The increase will be 7.3% on average for individual contracts, and 9.9% on average for compulsory collective contracts (taken out by companies for their employees), according to figures from the Mutualité, which federates French mutual insurance companies. The survey covers 38 mutual insurance companies, which cover a total of 18.7 million people. Mutual insurance companies are the largest group of complementary health insurance (with 46% of benefits paid), ahead of insurers (nearly 35% of the market) and provident institutions (just under 20%).

'Unacceptable' increases

The government has been worried for several weeks about the increases in contributions announced by complementary health insurance for 2024, and the risk of impact on purchasing power. Health Minister Aurélien Rousseau said on Friday that while it was possible to "explain" increases "of 5 to 7%", other increases already announced and of up to 12% were "unacceptable". The government cannot regulate the prices of complementary health insurance and can only call on consumers and businesses to compete.

According to the figures provided by the Mutualité, at least half of the members of mutual insurance companies remain within the framework of +5 to +7% mentioned by the Minister of Health. Half of the holders of an individual contract (taken out by an individual) or a collective contract (taken out by a company for its employees) will have an increase of less than 6.9%, she said. "Health spending has been extremely dynamic in 2023," says Eric Chenut, the president of the Mutualité française. "The increase was +6% when we were expecting +3 or +4%."

The increase is fuelled in particular by the increase in the salaries and tariffs of caregivers, a higher consumption of care, or the reduction in the reimbursement of dental care by the Social Security (from 70% of the tariff to 60%). More structurally, "health spending has been growing faster than the wealth produced" for years, Chenut said.

According to the president of the Mutualité, one of the solutions to try to avoid excessive increases in contributions could be to review the basket of reference care, the "responsible and solidarity-based contract". This contract "involves a very high level of definition of coverage, and therefore also a very high level of costs," he said. It might be useful to "give it greater modularity" to "allow people to cover themselves at the level they need".