Health Insurance

Complementary health insurance coverage

Some cases such as serious illness, maternity or industrial injury qualify for total (or quasi-total) coverage of health care costs. The rest of the time, the health insurance system reimburses only part of the cost (which will vary depending on the type of service provided), leaving the remainder, or ticket modérateur, to be borne by the patient.

Over time, to cover the portion of cost borne by the patient, various complementary health insurance systems began to emerge. Today, there are three types of complementary health insurance:

1. the mutual benefit funds (mutuelles), which began to develop at the end of the nineteen century and today cover about 40 million people,
2. the private insurance companies, which are increasingly targeting the health market,
3. the provident institutions, which are co-managed by representatives of employers and employees and have a smaller share of the insurance market than the above two types of organisation.

In most cases, complementary insurance is provided through the workplace, in which case contributions are shared by employers and employees.