By Marco Hugo Barsotti MHB 
You are listening to a new special from am1575news, Francia24 and Radio Centrale Milano, in podcasting and on the medium wave.
Like many French citizens, we have received an appeal from the complementary mutual that invites us to write to our political representatives. What is it about? It is a response to the government that, to balance its accounts, orders the mutuals to cover a share higher than the current one of health costs, proportionally reducing the part paid by the State itself.
We provide in full the translation of the letter sent to us by Matmut:
Letter from the President of the French Mutuality to members
Dear member, dear member,
This summer the government decided.
The Social Security will reimburse less (or almost nothing) for certain treatments and certain drugs. But rest assured: your mutual is called to step in for an amount of €2.3 billion. And we will do it.
The problem, and public authorities know it, is that with this decision the government creates the conditions for an increase in your contributions.
And the State does not stop there: for €100 of contribution, it takes an additional €16.12 in taxes. Over a year, this represents almost two months’ worth of your contract.
In summary, the State asks the mutuals to reimburse more, while recovering part of your contributions paid to those same mutuals. Moreover, the law requires us to have the means and reserves necessary to maintain our reimbursement commitments. This double burden inevitably puts contributions under pressure.
These new decisions penalize all of us, especially retirees who fund their own mutual.
For you, we want to prevent these decisions from leading to an excessively high increase in contributions. And since shifting health expenses to the mutuals does not make them disappear, but only changes who pays, we have proposed long‑term solutions to public authorities to contain costs and ensure that everyone can always get care (L’Appel de la Mutualité Française – Mutualité Française).
Today we propose an immediate solution: reduce the taxes levied on mutual contracts.
Let us mobilize together and ask our elected officials, who will soon vote on the Social Security budget, to bring taxes back to the level of essential goods, that is 5.5% and no longer 16.12%, because health is not a luxury product. The mutuals continue to do their part. The State must also do its part.
Find a template letter to send to your senator and deputy at www.mutualite.fr.
This is all for now. From the Paris editorial office I am Rachel Costa: this is am1575news, Francia24 and Radio Centrale Milano.