This is a perverse effect of the health crisis linked to the Covid-19 epidemic. The payment of contributions owed by companies to mutuals, insurers and provident institutions for their complementary health and provident contracts fell sharply due to work stoppages and massive partial unemployment demanded for 12.4 million French people from the start containment on March 17. These situations, in effect, exempt employees from contributing for their top-up and for pension plans.
As a result, insured persons on sick leave or partial unemployment are no longer covered in the event of accident, invalidity, occupational disease or death. "We have alerted the government to this situation, which poses a significant risk to employees who find themselves without coverage," explains Stéphane Pénet, deputy general delegate to the French Insurance Federation (FFA).
The message has been heard and an amendment must be tabled these days in the Senate, and then discussed in the Assembly, to allow companies to maintain the benefit of the guarantees of the collective contract for their partially unemployed employees and this retroactive to March 11.
Falling contributions
There remains, for the complementary and provident fund players, the loss of a large volume of contributions. According to Gerep projections, the loss of income would amount to "99 million euros for health, 300 million euros for pension plans" for the entire insurance sector.
Admittedly, moreover, the bill for reimbursements for city care borne by complementary health care is in free fall, the confined French having stopped seeing many doctors, dentists, physiotherapists ... According to the brokerage firm Gerep which carried out a study on 60,000 members, the envelope of care costs dropped by 29% between March and May, a decrease of 8% in full year.
"But we anticipate a catch-up effect on the consumption of care after deconfinement," tempers Damien Vieillard-Baron, president of Gerep, who stresses that this projection does not take into account the bill for hospital care linked to Covid-19. “For example, resuscitation costs us reimbursement, between 1,000 euros and 4,000 euros per day and per patient. This invoice should arrive in July ”.
A cost of several hundred million euros in the event of rising unemployment
Finally, provident institutions, mutuals and insurers fear that the bill will increase considerably in the event of a spike in unemployment. "The dismissed employee retains his guarantees for a period, proportional to his seniority, to a maximum of twelve months during which he does not contribute, but can be taken care of for his health," recalls Damien Vieillard-Baron.
This portability of rights, introduced in 2008, "usually affects 2.5 to 3% of members," says Damien Vieillard-Baron. "But the only doubling of this rate would cost the sector, between loss of revenue and expenditure, from 600 to 800 million euros in a full year."
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When questioned, the major federations in the sector were cautious. No comment from the Technical Center for Provident Institutions, which represents 51 institutions. The French Mutual Fund, which has 300 member mutuals, does not advance any more: "Nobody, do we slip in the entourage of the president, Thierry Beaudet, is today unable to precisely assess the expenses of health and the amount of uncollected contributions for mutuals. "