"La Mutualité"

All legal residents in France are insured for health care and pensions by a system called “La Sécurité Sociale” (Social Security), created in 1945. Costs are covered by employees and employers, but today (fortunately) also unemployed benefit from the health care advantages. Employers and labour unions jointly control the funds under state supervision. Some 75% of the health expenditures are covered by this system. For the difference between the 100 and the 75%, employees are covered to a quite high extent by complementary insurance systems via different mutual funds, once again with costs shared between employers and employees. (Private insurances are of course also possible.)

“Mutualism”, built on solidarity between its members with common funds, may be differentiated from as well capitalism as socialism – some kind of “compromise”. It started to appear already during the 18^th century, but it’s of course to a large extent linked to the 19^th century labour movements and the industrial revolution. Well structured since some 100 or 150 years, well before the “Sécurité Sociale”, there are today several hundred mutual organisations in France, acting in insurance, banking...

These different French non-profit mutual bodies and their central organisation have some kind of “home” in Paris, in this building from 1930, in a perfect “art deco” style: “La Maison de la Mutualité”.

Since its creation it has been the place for a lot of political and social meetings, but it has also a big concert hall and many artists like to perform here, maybe sometimes also for political reasons. Charlie Chaplin has registered some film music and a surprising mixture of artists has performed here, including Jacques Brel (his last concert), Herbert von Karajan, Peter Gabriel, Björk...

... and there is aslo a nicely "art deco" decorated restaurant.