An inexorable upward trend: health insurance companies are planning an average increase of 6% in their contributions for 2025 after 8.1% in 2024, citing in particular the acceleration in the growth of health expenditure.
These forecasts from the French Mutual Insurance Company cover 41 mutual insurance companies representing 19.9 million people. They do not cover the entire supplementary health insurance market, but give a good approximation.
Individual contracts, taken out in particular by pensioners, "will increase by an average of 5.3%", and mandatory collective contracts, covering employees via their company, "by an average of 7.3%", according to a press release from Mutualité on Wednesday.
Optional collective contracts will increase “by 6.8%”, details the Mutualité.
This overall increase of around 6% will follow the record increase of 2024 (+8.1%), after +4.7% in 2023, and +3.4% in 2022, and will remain far from the 2.6% recorded on average over the previous 10 years (2.6%).
"We understand that people are wondering about this increase, but it is being done at the level strictly necessary to ensure the continued protection of all," said the president of Mutualité, Eric Chenut, quoted in the press release.
– Aging –
For the Mutualité, the announced increase is "inevitable", due in particular to the "structural" increase in health expenditure in France, i.e. +5.2% in 2023.
Added to this structural effect is a greater participation of supplementary health insurance in the financing of certain expenses, such as dental costs – of which supplementary health insurance now covers 40%, compared to 30% before 2023, she adds.
Once again, the president of the Mutualité called on all health stakeholders to come together around the table to try to better control the growth in spending in the sector.
Health care spending "is growing two to three times faster than national wealth. With our aging population and scientific advances, and without structural overhaul, this spending will continue to increase until we can no longer cope," he warns.
The Mutualité published its figures despite the unknown that still remains regarding the health expenses charged to supplementary health insurance in 2025, due to the absence of a budget from the Social Security.
In the budget project presented by Michel Barnier's government, health insurance plans were to increase their share in the reimbursement of medical consultations and medication, so that health insurance could save around a billion euros.
– “Arbitration” –
If this increase ultimately does not take place, due to the absence of a budget for the Social Security, there would be "adjustments" downwards for contributions, Eric Chenut stressed to the AFP, without committing to what they could represent.
"We will only be able to determine them when we know exactly what the decision will be" for the future Social Security budget, he added.
The new increase in prices will in any case fuel criticism of supplementary health insurance, accused by some of overdoing it a bit.
A senatorial report estimated that in 2024, the trend increase in health spending, and the new spending charged to supplementary insurance, should have resulted in an increase of "4.5% to 6.5%", and not 8.1%.
In their defense, the health insurance companies will be able to brandish figures published on Wednesday by Drees, the statistics department of the social ministries.
For the first time since 2011, supplementary health insurance, all families combined (mutual insurance, insurance, joint organizations), were in 2023 in slight "technical loss", their expenses exceeding the contributions collected by 0.4%.
Over the whole of their activity (taking into account in particular financial products), the net profit of supplementary health insurance stood at 3.4% of contributions in 2023, compared to 3.5% in 2024.
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