mutual societies plan an 8.1% increase in their contributions

Supplementary health insurance with mutual status plans an average increase of 8.1% in their contributions in 2024, an increase not seen in years. The increase will be 7.3% on average for individual contracts, and 9.9% on average for compulsory collective contracts (subscribed by companies for their employees), according to a survey by the French Mutualité published Tuesday, December 19. The survey covers 38 mutual societies, which concern 18.7 million people in total.

Mutual insurance companies are the largest family of supplementary health insurance (with 46% of benefits paid), ahead of insurers (nearly 35% of the market) and provident institutions (a little less than 20%). The government has been concerned for several weeks about the increases in contributions announced by complementary health insurance for 2024, and the risk of impact on purchasing power.

An increase fueled by several factors

The Minister of Health Aurélien Rousseau estimated Friday that if we could “explain” increases “from 5 to 7%”further increases of up to 12% were “unacceptable”. The government cannot control the prices of supplementary health insurance and can only call on consumers and businesses to encourage competition. According to the figures provided by the Mutuality, at least half of the mutual members remain within the framework of +5 to +7% mentioned by the Minister of Health.

This increase is notably fueled by the revaluation of salaries and prices of caregivers, higher consumption of care, or the reduction in reimbursement of dental care by Social Security (from 70% of the price to 60%). According to the president of the Mutualité, one of the solutions to try to avoid excessively high increases in contributions could be to review the benchmark care basket, the “responsible and united contract”. This contract “embeds a very high level of definition of the coverages, and therefore also a very high level of costs”asserted Eric Chenut. It might be useful for him “give greater modularity”For “allow people to cover themselves at the level that is necessary for them”.