This is an important change for all French people who have complementary health insurance.
As of Tuesday, December 1, their contract becomes terminable at any time after the first year has elapsed, although it could only be terminated until its anniversary date.
Despite the rebellion of mutuals, insurers and provident institutions for months, this measure passed in the law of July 14, 2019 was ratified by a decree published last week by the Ministry of Health.
For the government, the objective is to make the health insurance market, which weighs 38 billion euros - 18 billion for collective contracts and 20 billion for individual contracts -, by freeing consumers from the constraints of tacit renewal.
For the French, it is the guarantee of being able to extricate themselves more easily from a contract that no longer suits them and to bring competition into play.
The consumer association UFC-Que Choisir, favorable to the measure, estimated that it could save policyholders € 1 billion in purchasing power per year.
Conversely, complementary health insurance denounces a "
false good idea
".
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This measure is in fact the latest avatar of a large pro-consumer movement that has aimed for more than ten years to better protect the French.
It follows on from the Chatel law (2008) which facilitated the termination of mobile phone plans, the Lagarde law (2010) reforming consumer credit to better fight against over-indebtedness, the Hamon law (2014) on the termination at any time of auto, motorcycle or home insurance after one year of engagement, and even more recently the Bourquin law (2017) which upset the rules of the game by allowing borrowers to terminate their insurance contract mortgage loan on each anniversary.
This new measure will force complementary products to adapt to a healthcare market where margins are low.
"
It is clear that those who do not upgrade on the internet will lose market share, this may be complicated for insurers who have an aging tool
", says Jean-Sébastien Nénon, former comparator LesFurets.com and director of the Coverlife broker (Adélaïde group), which focuses on digital and business intelligence tools.
Increase in premiums
Opposed for months to this measure, the complementary have put forward many arguments, without succeeding in convincing the government.
La Mutualité Française argued that it is "
a blow to solidarity
", which risks penalizing the most vulnerable policyholders and could render inapplicable the commitments of mutuals, for example on third-party payment.
Above all, the players in the sector have warned against an increase in their loyalty fees, which will impact their management costs and will inevitably affect the prices to policyholders.
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Is the risk real of ultimately seeing premiums increase and the measure turning against the consumer?
Tariffs increase every year, because health costs are increasing due to the aging of the population, but also due to measures imposed by the public authorities such as 100% health.
Not to mention the Covid tax of 1.5 billion, included in the 2021 budget of the Social Security, to contribute to the health crisis.
But above all, termination at any time had to go hand in hand with a simplification and clarification of contracts which are often illegible for policyholders: abstruse jargon, reimbursements expressed as a percentage of the Social Security ceiling and not in euros, different guarantees from one operator to another. 'other, etc.
However, on this essential corollary for comparing contracts, progress is slow.
We will therefore have to wait a few months to measure the real impact of this new measure.
In 2016, the generalization of complementary company health, imposed by Marisol Touraine and which had upset the sector for months, finally gave birth to a mouse: the overall coverage rate by complementary health had increased from 95% ... at 96%!