The fund will move from rue de Strasbourg to a new purpose built location on rue de Hollerich around the corner in two year's time. On Saturday morning (25 May), the first stone was laid in the foundations of the new building. Director Fabio Secci was in a jovial mood, as the Chamber voted in a new mutuality law ten days ago.
It is a distance of just 150 metres from the current building to the new development. The CMCM has earned itself a new home, with around 270,000 members.
Secci said the current building does not allow for adequate service for its members, as the departments are divided up. Spread across 3 floors, the offices are lacking in space to receive customers, and Secci was particularly concerned about people with difficult illnesses, who rarely visit for information and assistance. In order to provide better discretion and working together, they decided to implement a new building, starting from scratch.
Costing around 25 million euros, the building project is set to take up a lot of space in the station area. Luxembourg construction director Roland Kuhn explained the project would also implement high quality living spaces as well as offices. However, there are concerns that this may not be affordable housing. By the time that the building is finished, CMCM expects to have gone fully paperless.
In principle, CMCM is a cooperative, an association of people who are insure against risks. It is supposed to be solidary, unselective and not-for-profit and it aims to complement the national health insurance company. Recently, MPs have voted on a reform of the 1961 law on mutual funds.
Mutuals don't fall under the EU regulations for insurers who makes promises for the future. Secci welcomes this assessment. He explained that they do not make any promises for the future, they charge an annual contribution, which is then distributed to those who need it. If they have anything left - great. If they don't, they need to summon a congress and need to decide whether to cut benefits or increase contributions. The maximum contract length is thus one year. As a result, as MPs have no confirmed, mutuals that stick to this kind of mechanism, cannot fall under "Solvency" (EU regulations).
Last year, CMCM distributed benefits worth €40 million.
