Created by the Law of 13th May 2008 and born of the merger of the Union of Health Insurance Funds (Union des caisses de maladie - UCM) and the health insurance funds from the private sector, the National Health Fund (Caisse nationale de santé - CNS) is in charge of managing health-maternity and long-term care insurances.
Before the introduction of the single status (statut unique), the various health insurance funds were classified according to the socio-professional status of their insured persons, between private employees and workers.
Since 1st January 2009, the following six private-sector health insurance funds:
- Private-sector employees' health insurance fund (Caisse de maladie des employés privés - CMEP);
- Manual workers' health insurance fund (Caisse de maladie des ouvriers - CMO);
- Liberal professions' health insurance fund (Caisse de maladie des professions indépendantes - CMPI);
- Agricultural workers' health insurance fund (Caisse de maladie agricole - CMA);
- Arbed health insurance fund (Caisse de maladie des employés/ouvriers de l'Arbed - CMEA and CMOA).
and the Union of Health Insurance Funds merged into the National Health Fund.
The CNS is a public institution endowed with the civil personality and placed under the supervision of the Ministry of Social Security, exercised through the General Inspectorate of the Social Security (Inspection générale de la sécurité sociale - IGSS).
It is managed by a Council of Administration with a tripartite organisation comprised of representatives of the workforce, the employers and a State representative as chairman of the Committee.