French think-tank attacks

The Institut economique Molinari, a French think-tank, has attacked as "sophistry" the decision by the government to add a new tax on health insurers as an alternative to raising taxes on their customers. Guillaume Vuillemey, a researcher at the IeM, described the claims by France's Budget Minister, Eric Worth, that under the new insurance levy "the patient must in no case lose out" and that "none of these measures is directed against the insured," as implausible. Such arguments simply mask the indirect taxation of the French public, the IeM believes.