Supplementary health insurance plans an average increase of 8.1% in contributions in 2024, after an increase of 4.7% in 2023. Franceinfo explains the reasons for these increases.
Treating yourself will cost a lot more next year. Supplementary health insurance contributions will see record increases in 2024, with an average increase of 8.1%. In detail, this increase will be 7.3% for individual contracts and 9.9% for compulsory collective contracts (subscribed by companies for their employees), according to a survey by the French Mutualité, published Tuesday December 19.
The Addactis firm, a specialist in the sector, for its part, forecasts even higher increases, of the order of 9 to 11% for supplementary health insurance subscribed individually, and of 8 to 12.5% for collective contracts. “This is not sustainable”, warned Aurélien Rousseau, the former Minister of Health, at the beginning of November. He then asserted that mutual societies “cannot make patients the adjustment variable of their economic model”. During his meeting with sector players on Friday, he denounced increases “unacceptable”.
Rising expenses
For their part, supplementary health insurance ensures that the increase in their contributions only reflects the increase in their expenses for their policyholders. “Over the first eight months of 2023, benefits paid by mutual societies increased by +6% compared to the same period the previous year, significantly more than the estimated increase” initially, thus notes the French Mutuality on his site.
Insurers estimate that this increase in French health spending is notably due to the“increase in remuneration of health professionals”, as the French Mutualité asserts, while general practitioners have obtained that the price of a consultation increases from 25 euros to 26.50 euros. They also point to the aging of the population.
But for the economist Frédéric Bizard, a specialist in social protection issues, most of the increase in health spending rather “of long-term conditions (ALD), as well as innovative medicines”, whose prices are extremely high. Gold “100% of these expenses are reimbursed by Health Insurance, so there is no surcharge for complementary insurance”he points out to franceinfo, denouncing the explanation put forward by mutual societies.
A falling share of Social Security
On the other hand, supplementary services are suffering from the reduction in the coverage of certain benefits by Social Security. The latter “transfers more and more funding to complementary funds”, deciphers economist Nathalie Coutinet, specialist in the health sector. Since October 15, the rate of coverage by Health Insurance for most dental care has fallen from 70% to 60%, the difference being financed by complementary insurance.
The “100% health” plan also allows French people to benefit from coverage for their glasses, dentures and hearing aids since January 1, 2021, at no additional cost. All partly financed by mutual societies. “With this device, we observed an explosion of the hearing aid”, observes Nathalie Coutinet.
The researcher regrets that the government “denied to increase social security contributions”which would make it possible to finance better coverage by Health Insurance. “Having the growth in healthcare costs borne by complementary insurance necessarily means increasing their prices from year to year”insists the economist.
“By moving from financing by Social Security to financing by complementary insurance, we generate inequalities.”
Nathalie Coutinet, economistat franceinfo
Because the French do not have access to the same supplements or the same coverage, depending on their level of income and their professional situation. A private sector employee can benefit from better supplementary benefits if they are in a large group than if they are in an SME with ten employees. “Moreover, we pay our supplement according to the number of children, which is not the case with Social Security”adds Nathalie Coutinet, who notes that the “worse off” are “the unemployed, students and retirees”.
Competition as a solution?
Could supplementary health insurance companies find ways to contain soaring prices? “They have a huge number of employees and very high management costs, of the order of 7.5 billion euros, covered by 20% of the contributions of their policyholders”underlines Frédéric Bizard.
Furthermore, the reserves of private health insurers amount to “86 billion euros”according to the economist, or “2.6 times more than the prudential reserves required by the Banque de France to insure the French”. The Prudential Control and Resolution Authority (ACPR), which supervises the banking and insurance sectors, asked insurers in November to be “more effective” in “drawing from their reserve”relays the economist.
For now, the government is content to invite the French to bring in competition. “But it’s complicated when you have a company contract”, recalls Nathalie Coutinet. She emphasizes that, in any case, the “contracts are difficult to read and often very difficult to compare”. An observation shared by Frédéric Bizard, who believes that it is necessary “make the market much more transparent, with an offer that is understandable and accessible to all, which is not the case today.”