« If an increase of 5 to 7% can be justified, which is already considerable, increases of up to 12% announced by certain organizations are unacceptable. », declared the Minister of Health, Aurélien Rousseau, in a press release broadcast Friday afternoon on
He encouraged policyholders with individual contracts and companies having subscribed to collective contracts to “fully take advantage of the contract termination clauses if they consider that the complementary organizations have not been able to explain these increases”, added Mr. Rousseau.
The minister met on Friday morning with representatives of the three major complementary insurance families (mutual insurance companies, insurers, provident institutions) to discuss future price increases.
Although most of these increases have not yet been announced, expert estimates suggest they will generally be between 8 and 12 percent.
Supplementary organizations, often wrongly designated as mutuals since only some of them have this status, justify these increases by inflation and the net increase in health spending after the health crisis.
The French Mutuality, bringing together complementary mutual insurance companies, estimates that its members’ expenses have increased by an average of 6% over the first eight months of 2023.
“Increased risk”
Supplementary insurance companies also attribute these increases to transfers of Health Insurance costs. Following negotiations with dentists this year, it only reimburses 60% of their fees (compared to 70% previously), forcing supplementary health insurance companies to increase their reimbursements to mitigate the impact on the insured.
However, the State considers that these increases are not completely justified and is targeting in particular the operating expenses considered excessive by supplementary workers.
“There is a lack of proactivity or an inability of certain actors to control management costs, which concerns us,” said a person close to the minister on Friday.
According to Drees, complementary health insurance companies devote around 20% of their revenue to operations, a stable percentage since 2015.
For complementary insurers, the fundamental problem lies rather in the constant growth of health expenses, requiring an increase in contributions.
« These expenditures are growing faster than national wealth, and this trend is accelerating », noted Eric Chenut, president of Mutualité française. It is therefore necessary to allocate more resources to them, he said.
The responsibilities of the State, Health Insurance and supplementary health insurance are shared and they must cooperate, particularly in investments in prevention, he added.
In 2021, according to data from the Drees (Directorate of Research, Studies, Evaluation and Statistics of Social Ministries), complementary funds were just in technical balance, indicated for her part Florence Lustman, president of France Assureurs, representing private insurers.
« Since then, benefits have increased faster than contributions “, she explained, highlighting an increase in risk for the French in the health field.
(with AFP)
2023-12-16 23:03:20
#Supplementary #health #benefits #unacceptable #increases #Minister #Health
