About 1980, many experts write that the État-providence keynésien is in crisis. These theses are developed by Pierre Rosanvallon in his works, the crisis of the Welfare state and the new social question. To reconsider the Welfare state . It is about triple crisis: financial, of legitimacy and philosophical. The " veil ignorance" (John Rawls) concerning the expenditure of Welfare State, accepted during the Glorious Thirty, tore little by little. However, twenty years after, the French system of social protection always exists in spite of the announced catastrophes. During years of crisis, the nature of the difficulties changed to pass from a financial crisis (deficit of the social security) to social problems (exclusion) and policies (blocking of the reforms).

The French system of protection can be qualified of bismarckien: the social security benefits are intended to the persons employed and for their having right, poured in the form of contributive services for the retirements, the daily allowances disease and the allowances unemployment, proportionnellemnt with the wages perceived previously. They are financed by contributions poured by the employers and the employees. They are managed within the cases by a board of directors where sit of the employee representatives and of the employers. But, there also exists in the social protection system a component beveridgienne which concerns the national solidarity. This component deals with those which do not have access to the services of health insurance.

Financial problems of the social security

Between 1974 and 1986, the accounts of the general scheme of the social security alternate positive deficits and balances (deficits between 1974 and 1976, in 1978,1981,1982,1982,1986 and 1987). From 1990 and 1998, the deficits are permanent to reach tops between 1993 and 1996 and since 2001. Several recovery packages tried to solve the financial problems of the Social security by introducing measurements of economy. Since medium of years 1970 until their institutionalization in 1996 (by the constitutional reform which had founded the vote of the annual law of financing of the social security by the Parlement), the plans followed one another the rate/rhythm of every year… except the electoral years.

However, their structure is always the same one: it is a question cause a drop in the expenditure in particular the health expenditure (rise of the share taken by the users in the medical expenses: user fee, hospital fixed price) and to increase the resources (increases in the taxes affected like the taxation of the tobacco, the alcohol and of the national insurance contributions). The plan of reform of the health insurance presented by Philippe Douste-Blazy in May 2004 does not derogate from this rule. It envisages:

  • 5 billion euros of new receipts obtained by the raising from 0,13% to 0,16% of the rate of the social contribution of solidarity on the companies, the raising from 6,2% to 6,6% of the Social contribution generalized of the taxable retirements, the creation of a frankness from one euro per consultation (except for the young people of less than 20 years and the recipients of CMU)

  • 10 billion euros economies on the offer care obtained thanks to the development the generic , déremboursement of the ineffective products and the fight against medicamentous overconsumption at the 128.000 days origin of hospitalization.

Attempts at control of the welfare expenditures

It is the economic context which leads France to modify its policy of social protection while implementing of true policies of reduction of the services in particular for the state pension scheme.

Indeed, the need for respecting the criteria of Maastricht as from 1996 and more still in 1997 with the stability pact explains for much the advertisement of the plan Juppe in November 1995. It still fits in the logic of the recovery packages of the social security since it envisages measurements making it possible to increase the receipts: raise CSG, creation of the CRDS (Contribution for the refunding of the social debt), increase in the national insurance contributions of reprocessed and the unemployed. But it also envisages to reduce the expenditure: fixing of quantified target of increase in the expenditure of health insurance, freezing of the family allowances. It finally aims at extending to the public modes the measurements decided in 1993 by Edouard Balladur for the basic retirements of the private sector. Only this last point will be abandoned because of the protests (strikes of November 1995) but it will be taken again in 2003 by Francois Fillon (except for the special diets of the SNCF and the RATP):

  • progressive passage in the 37,5 year old public sector to 40 years by 2008 at a rate of six months per annum,

  • the duration of contribution in the public sector must increase after 2008 according to the lengthening of the life expectancy to be increased to 41 years in 2012,
  • implemented of a rebate over 10 years to reach 5% per missing year in 2013,
  • surcote of 3% per additional year as well in the public as in the private one,
  • for the private one, no employee having a complete career should leave with a retirement lower than 85% SMIC Net,
  • it calculation of the pension will be done in the private sector on the basis of 160 quarter,
  • the employees having started to work very young person (14 years) will be able to leave to the retirement before 60 years in condition of having cotisé 40 years.

The development of the services under conditions of resources

Part of the population sufficiently remains excluded from the services of Social Security because of its incapacity with cotiser; it must thus count on the services under conditions of resources, the social minimums. Two measurements played a big role: RMI created in 1988 and the CMU adopted into 1999 which offers the most stripped cover health complementary to.

RMI and RMA

At the end of 2003,1,12 million people perceived RMI. A little less than one quarter the bénéficiares are it since less than one year but 10% have been it for more than 10 years. Manpower more than doubled since its creation in 1988. Only, one allocatee out of two has a true contract of insertion. This is why, vis-a-vis the " failure relatif" RMI (F.Fillon), the device it was supplemented in 2003 by the creation of RMA in order to activate the expenditure of the RMI. It supplements the RMI to help the allocatees to leave the assistantship and to thus avoid the phenomena of " trap doors with pauvreté". Fitting in the right wire of the policies of Workfare and the active Social state ( Activates Welfare State ), the RMA is reserved to the people who have perceived the RMI for at least two years. It is about a part-time work contract (from 6 to 18 months) remunerated by the height of the SMIC. Higher than the RMI (411,70 euros for a person alone), the RMA aims to encourage the professional insertion of RMIstes and to facilitate the return to employment. The employer receives a help equal to the amount of the RMI and pours with the allocatee the completion which enables him to reach the SMIC. N the other hand, it pays loads only on this differential…

ASS for the unemployed at the end of the right

With the reform of 1992 of the unemployment insurance, one passed from 34.800 recipients of ASS (Specific solidarity allocation) in 1992 to 467.000 in 1995 and 372.000 at the end of 2002. This social minimum, granted to the unemployed at the end of the right, is versed for one limited time (three years for those which are in the device and two years for the new entrants). At the end of January 2004, 264.000 unemployed saw themselves deprived of their unemployment insurance (the famous " recalculés") because of the signature in December 2003 of the convention reducing by 30 to 23 month duration of affiliation to the Assedic. Consequently, they rocked in the ASS (for one two years duration). The reverses of the majority to the regional elections led the Head of the State of " to ask the government to suspend the implementation of measurement relating to ASS". For those which cannot be even any more covered by the mode of solidarity of the system of compensation for unemployment (ASS), RMI (then the RMA) comes to play a part of " last net of sécurité".

Cover Universal disease

CMU improves the access of most stripped to the system of health care and guarantees that nobody is without social protection. The CMU fits in the law wire of the law against exclusions (July 1998). It is thus posed of recourse vis-a-vis the progressive reduction of the cover disease offered by the legal modes as well from the point of view of the number of people refunded as of the level of refunding. At March 31st, 2002, the CMU bénéficiat with 1,3 million people for the basic cover either 2% of the population and with 4,6 million for the complementary cover or 7,7% of the population.

On the whole, the study of the DREES (Direction of research, the studies, the evaluation and the statistics) published in December 2003 estimates at 3,3 million, the number of people profiting from the social minimums. With the couple and the children of the recipients, one approaches the 6 million people is 10% of the French population.

This separation enters, on a side the insurances and other solidarity contributes to dualiser the French system of social protection. It is double. On the one hand, it separates the populations covered in two groups: those which concern the insurance (having sufficiently contributed to profit from the services) and those which concern solidarity (having to count only on the services poured under conditions of resources, RMI, ASS…). In addition, this distinction divides also the system into two groups of sectors: those concerning the Social Security in a logic bismarckienne (retirements, unemployment) and those concerning a noncontributive logic (logic béveridgienne), financed by the tax and serving as the contractual services (families, policies to fight against poverty and exclusion).

Notes and references of the article

Random links:Puch | Castelvecchio Subequo | Deutsche Oper Berlin | Autonomous prefecture Tibetan of Garzê | Green technologies

© 2007-2008 speedlook.com; article text available under the terms of GFDL, from fr.wikipedia.org