Regulating private health insurance:France’s attempt at getting it all

Publicly financed health coverage in France is universal. Nevertheless, in 2015, private health insurance accounted for 13.3% of total spending on health (French Ministry of Health, 2016),5 one of the highest shares internationally. According to the most recent survey data available, 95% of the population is covered by a complementary health insurance contract that primarily reimburses statutory user charges. Nine out of ten people insured have a private contract while the rest benefit from publicly funded complementary coverage known as Couverture maladie universelle complémentaire (CMUC) due to their low income (Barlet, Beffy & Renaud, 2016; based on the 2012 Health, health care and insurance survey).6 The chapter begins by describing the basic features of the statutory health insurance system and the dynamics of its regulation, which explain the role that private health insurance has come to play over time.