Year
2011
Abstract
Welfare systems are usually classified in two major categories : the social insurance (or Bismarckian) model and the national (or Beveridgian) model. These models share two characteristics : the universality of the coverage offered and, given that they are compulsory, the principle that funding is based on the insuree’s contributive ability and not on the estimated level of risk. However they differ owing to the underlying tax base : the first relies on earned income alone whereas the second draws taxes from all sources of income. They also differ with respect to governance : the social insurance model involves management by organizations under the oversight of public authorities whereas the national model entails state management. Created by order in 1945, the French welfare state has, as it evolved, increasingly shifted toward a Beveridgian rationale with the state exercising ever more control over the three-party system of management set up after World War II.
PUYOU DE POUVOURVILLE, G. (2011). L’assurance maladie en France: Beveridge et Bismarck enfin reconciliés? Réalités Industrielles (série des “Annales des Mines”), pp. 19-24.