The year 2023 begins with a new blow in the wallets of the French, and this time, it is the mutuals which are concerned. This year, the contributions should jump 4.7% according to the Mutualité française which surveyed 35 mutuals, representing approximately 18 million French people. An increase which is explained in particular by inflation and the deployment of 100% health.
If this increase is a little lower than inflation – currently at 5.9% over one year – it nevertheless largely exceeds the 3.4% increase in 2022 and the 2.6% in 2021. But according to the president of the Mutualité française, it remains justified, in particular because of the increases in health expenditure caused by the “aging of the population, the fact that many fellow citizens suffer from chronic pathology and also because medicine is becoming more technical and therefore more expensive“, he said at the microphone of France info.
But who will be most affected? It is the compulsory collective contracts (companies or professional branches) that will be the most affected, in particular because the contracts “the most technically unbalanced” : they see their contributions inflated by 5.7% while the contributions of individual contracts will increase by 4.1% on average. According to the study of the Mutualité française, only 2.2 million members – mainly young people – will not see their bill increase.
Mutual insurance spending increased by 20%
After taking their account, the mutuals found that they had reimbursed more care, 10% more than in 2019, or an additional 49 euros per contributor. First explanation: the French returned to medical offices after periods of confinement. “The post-Covid rebound effect observed in 2021 continued in 2022, longer than anticipated”told the Parisian Éric Chenut, president of the Mutualité française
Mutuals also use the deployment of 100% health (100% reimbursement of glasses, dental care and hearing aids) as additional justification for the rate increase. The expenditure of mutuals in optics, hearing aids and dental would have increased by 20% to reach a total of 890 million euros. And this growth is not slowing down: according to the Mutualité française, reimbursements in audiology have increased by 10.7% and dental prostheses by 2.9%.
Finally, a last argument is used by mutuals: the transfer approved by Parliament of additional charges from compulsory health insurance to complementary health insurance (mutuals, provident institutes and health insurance), i.e. 150 million in 2023 then 300 million in one year. full. “The taxation of mutuals has been multiplied by eight in 20 years“, denounces Éric Chenut in the columns of the Parisian.
Sources:
- Increase in the prices of mutual insurance companies: “Health expenditure has more than doubled in twenty years”, justifies the National Federation of French Mutual Insurance, France infoJanuary 5, 2022
- Complementary health: mutual insurance rates up 4.7% in 2023, The ParisianJanuary 4, 2022
