Social security and health

Almost everyone is covered by the social security system, notably after the reform of 1998 that extended coverage to those previously excluded owing to lack of income. Social insurance was introduced in 1930 and family allowances in 1932, but the comprehensive rules for social security were established in 1946. A network of elected social security and family allowance caisses primaires (“primary boards”), headed by national caisses, manages a considerable budget. This budget relies on employers’ and employees’ social security contributions, as well as the proceeds from a special tax, introduced in 1991 (contribution sociale généralisée), on all forms of income. Deficits are made up by the state. The majority of expenditure is devoted to retirement benefits (pensions) and the partial reimbursement of most medical expenses. Other payments include family benefits for dependent children, unemployment indemnities, and housing subsidies. Since 1988, in response to a long-term problem of unemployment in France, people with little or no income have been able to benefit from a special government subsidy known as the social minimum (revenu minimum d’insertion).

France complies with the principles of liberal medicine, with patients free to choose doctors and treatment. Since 1960, however, agreements have been signed at a regional level between the caisses and the professional medical associations that regulate fees. Although doctors need not necessarily adhere to them, reimbursements from social security are based on these scales.

The hospital reform of 1960 joined hospitals and medical schools through the creation of teaching hospitals. Private hospitals and clinics operate alongside public hospitals, and the cost of treatment in private facilities may also be partially reimbursed from social security funds. Since the enactment of legislation in 1991, the government has sought to rationalize the distribution of hospitals to take advantage of shifting population densities, changing health care needs, and new technology.

Housing

In the first years after World War II, France experienced a continuous housing crisis. Although the Fourth Republic successfully carried out reconstruction following the war, this did not substantially reduce housing requirements, which were intensified by urbanization, population growth, the repatriation of one million French nationals from Algeria, immigration, and the deterioration of buildings (by the turn of the 21st century, 35 percent of the nation’s housing predated 1948). The government encourages construction through premiums, loans (particularly for low-rent housing), and tax incentives. Municipal and other public bodies also have engaged in a vast program of subsidized public housing (habitation à loyer modéré; HLM), which was especially prominent in the 1960s and ’70s. In 1970 the procedure for receiving building permits for private construction was greatly simplified, and since 1982 mayors have been responsible for granting construction permits and devising local housing policies for both the public and private sectors. The government has also sought to encourage home ownership through low-interest loans. As a result of continuing suburbanization, far greater emphasis is now placed on building houses rather than apartments. From the late 1960s city planning in France became more organized through such programs as zone d’aménagement concerté (ZAC), which often link both private and public developers. Reforms in 2000 updated long-term development plans (schéma de cohérence territoriale; SCOT) and detailed land-use plans (plan local d’urbanisme; PLU). The current emphasis of urban policy is on rehabilitation, particularly of the many peripheral housing estates built in the 1960s and ’70s but also of older central districts.

Wages and the cost of living

Despite a history of high inflation, over recent years levels have been similar to those of other industrialized countries. Indeed, since the mid-1980s inflation has been particularly low in France. A minimum wage law has been in effect since 1950, and since 1970 it has been supplemented by a provision known as the salaire minimum interprofessionel de croissance (SMIC; general and growth-indexed minimum wage), which has increased the lowest salaries faster than the inflation rate. Its level is set annually, and all employers must abide by it. Women are, in general, paid less well than men. A worker earns nearly twice as much in Paris as in the less-developed départements of central France. The differentials between the earnings of manual workers and those of managers, while still large, have diminished progressively. In general, the majority of French society has benefited from a very substantial increase in purchasing power over the last half century.