5% in cars, a little more in homes and almost 10% in health… Insurance premiums will weigh heavily on household budgets in 2024. MoneyVox details these expected increases, the way in which they are justified by professionals and how the government hopes to obtain a form of price moderation.
More than ever, in 2024, auto, home and health customers of insurance companies will have to ask themselves questions about their contracts. For what? Because everyone, on average, will see their premium increase. And in such a scenario, let’s start with the essential reminder: take back the guarantees of your commitments one by one to find out if they are still useful to you, analyze the requested price And compare it with those of the competitionwithout forgetting that, often, discounts are offered to newcomers.
Without obligation to go further, experts advise doing so approximately every two years and, even more so, since the Hamon law allows you to terminate your contract at any time after one year and to entrust the administrative procedures to the new insurer. And if you think that MoneyVox is exaggerating, faced with the expected increases in insurance premiums in 2024, even the Minister of Economy and Finance Bruno Le Maire calls on the French to bring in competition after asking, without success, for insurers to demonstrate price moderation.
Car insurance: same causes, same effects
According to estimates from several sector specialists such as assurland.com, Facts & Figures, Addactis and the broker Meilleurtaux, car insurance rates are expected to increase by 3.5 to 4%. Peaks of 5% could even be recorded. And this is due in particular to the repetition of climatic disasters, and inflation of the price of spare parts (+10% over one year).
In two years, the total cost of repairs has increased by 14%, and there is no reason to expect a drop in the costs of raw materials in 2024, analysis for its part by Addactis. And this, despite the liberalization of the spare parts market comes into force in January 2023 which did not produce immediate effects because it only concerns vehicles over 10 years old.
More on-board technologies, more electric cars on the roads, a workforce that is becoming scarce… in the event of material damage, the price of repairs soars, adds Olivier Moustacakis from Assurland to MoneyVox. According to the comparator, the average price of car insurance contracts today reaches 630 euros per year, with disparities between third-party, extended third-party and all-risk formulas.
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According to a survey by the comparator Les Furets, this upcoming increase is perceived as unjustified for nearly 3 out of 4 French people (74%), and even more among intermediate professions (83%) and respondents without professional activity (83%). For their part, insurers have obtained the abolition of the green insurance card for April 2024, which they had hoped for for many months.
Home insurance: the biggest increase in 10 years
According to estimates from sector specialists assurland.com and Facts & Figures, home insurance prices should jump by 5.6% in 2024. An increase that had not been seen for more than ten years. The violent bad weather that hit France this fall will weigh on prices, explains Olivier Moustacakis. Damage due to storms and floods is estimated at nearly 2 billion euros (1.3 billion for Ciaran and Domingos, 550 million for the floods).
Faced with this situation, the worst is yet to come. The government could take the decision to increase the level of the Catnat surcharge which represents on average 27 euros per year on a home insurance contract. Its revaluation would make the levy nearly 41 euros, and therefore the average price of a contract 268 euros per year. After post-Covid crisis stagnation, home insurance rates are rising. We have reached almost 40% increase since 2010, comments Olivier Moustacakis. The most pessimistic forecasts expect increases of 130% within 30 years. In the United Kingdom, the increases observed are already + 70%, underlines Christophe Dandois, the founder of the insurtech Leocare.
Health insurance
But the worst concerns health insurance contracts. Increases of around 8 to 12% are announced by the experts.
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In mid-December, the Minister of Health Aurlien Rousseau asked the three main families of supplementary health insurance (mutual societies, insurers, provident institution) to limit increases in contributions.
Florence Lustman, the president of France Assureurs, considered that increases were necessary to preserve the economic balance of supplementary workers, in a context of inexorable rise in health spending. Health spending is growing faster than national wealthand this is accelerating, confirmed Eric Chenut, the president of Mutualit franaise who is planning an increase of 8.1% for 38 mutuals, which protect 18.7 million people in total.
The Minister of Health believes that he can explain increases of 5 to 7%, but no more…
So why these price spikes among insurers? This sector is inevitably facing the aging of the population and the improvement of medical technologies, as well as the increase in the price of care (+ 4.8% in 20223), analyzes Olivier Moustacakis who for his part is counting on a average increase of 4%.
In 2023, complementary health insurance plans will also have to absorb a transfer of Social Security expenditure of 500 million euros on dental care. Since October, healthcare procedures have been reimbursed at 65% or 55% of the conventional health insurance rate, compared to 70% until now. In addition, they estimate that they will have to pay 1.4 billion euros in additional expenses next year while the 100% Health reform has not reduced health expenses, quite the contrary, analyzes Samuel Bansard of the broker Meilleurtaux.