Social Security in France

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Social Security in France is divided into four branches:

  • Maladie, or illness;
  • Vieillesse, or old age;
  • Famille, or family;
  • Recouvrement, recovery.

From an institutional point of view, French social security is made up of diverse organismes collectively referred to as La Sécu, an abbreviation of Sécurité Sociale.

[edit] History

As early as the Middle Ages, certain professional organizations provided limited assistance, in times of hardship, to their members. However, the abolition of corporations by the Allarde deree, in 1791, put an end to this early system of private and professional collective security. It was nevertheless replaced by the sociétés de secours mutuels, or societies for mutual support, recognized and strictly regimented by the Humann law of the 22nd of June, 1835. These sociétés would thereafter be liberated from the control of the government, and encouraged by the law of the 1st of April, 1898, referred to as the Chartre de la mutualité, or Charter of mutuality. The 1989 law establishes the principles of mutualisme, as they are found today in French law; mutuelles -- organizations for collective social insurance -- were permitted to propose loans to any French person, although interest rates remained too costly for a large part of the population.

Alongside the movement for mutual, private social insurance, legislators also put in place early programs of state-sponsored social aid, which tended to nurture the principle of national solidarity. The law of the 15th of July, 1893, instituted free medical assistance; and that of the 9th of April, 1898, facilitated considerably the indemnification of victims of work accidents. On June 27, 1904, a third law created the service départemental d'aide sociale à l'enfance, an assistance for childbirth; and on July 14th, 1905, an assistance for the elderly and disabled was put in place.

The development of insurance companies, at the beginning of the XXth century, was also encouraged by legislation. (Note that insurance companies aim to win a profit, while mutuelles are cooperatives.) On April 9th, 1898, legislators required that employers purchase insurance for the payment of indemnities to injured employees. Then on April 5th, 1928, it was required that the insurance be extended to illness, maternity, and death; and on April 30th, 1930, the law was again extended to apply to jobs in the agricultural sector.

During the Second World War, the National Council of the French Resistance, which drafted a program describing both military strategy and plans for a post-war, liberated France, adopted plans for an all-encompassing social security, which would cover all citizens, regardless of their wealth, in the eventuality of inability to work due to sickness of injury. In the United Kingdom, the first report of British economist William Beveridge outlined the general principles that would govern the integration and evolution of social security in post-war France. Indeed, the ordonnances of the 4th and 19th of April, 1945, created a generalized, national social security system similar to that described in Beveridge's plan.

Modern social security, in France, is paritaire -- dual, or characterized by parity -- in its structure:

  • it is financed by payments from both employers and their employees;
  • and it is administered or managed by all partenaires sociaux, or social partners; typically, they are the employee's union and the employer's company.

Shortly thereafter, the Constitution of the IVth Republic, adopted by referendum on the 13th of October, 1946, stipulated in its preamble a constitutional obligation for the state to provide financial assistance to those deemed most exposed to social risk -- women, children, and retired workers.

Nevertheless, the unification of social security was limited. The program of the CNR -- the national resistance council -- had envisioned a unique social security regime; but the régime général which was created did not cover miners, sailors, farmers, or government employees, all of whom were covered by régimes particuliers -- particular regimes -- which were distinct from the national social security program. Finally, the law of the 22nd of May, 1946, limited the general regime -- that which the CNR had hoped would cover all citizens -- to employees of the industrial or commercial sectors.

In the following decades, the general regime would be gradually extended:

  • the law of the 9th of April, 1947, extended social security to government functionaries;
  • ...
  • and, finally, the law of the 28th of July, 1999, instituted universal medical insurance.

(Translation from http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%A9curit%C3%A9_sociale_en_France is still in progress...)

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