In short…
Where an employee sees half of their health cover funded by their employer, the self-employed worker (TNS — the self-employed) funds their top-up health cover alone. The Madelin framework restores the balance: taken out within it, the contribution becomes deductible from taxable business profit, within a specific ceiling — provided the contract is “responsible” and the contributions regular. The simulator below estimates, according to your bracket, the real net cost of your health cover once the tax saving is deducted.
- Tax-deductible contributions, from your taxable business profit within the dedicated Madelin ceiling
- Cover suited to the self-employed, and their family, with no employer co-funding
- Lower net cost, through the tax saving, with no reduction in cover
Simulate the net cost of your health cover
The simulator applies your marginal tax rate to the deductible contribution. Your data is neither stored nor transmitted.
Madelin top-up health cover simulator
Self-employed: estimate the net cost of your top-up health cover after the Madelin tax deduction.
Results are provided for purely illustrative and educational purposes, based on the parameters you enter and simplified assumptions (2026 taxation, constant return, excluding inflation). They constitute neither personalised investment advice, nor tax advice, nor an offer to subscribe. Some investments carry a risk of capital loss. Before any decision, speak with an advisor.
The self-employed worker’s health: their cost, but deductible
It is an asymmetry few directors have in mind: an employee benefits from a company health plan half-funded by the employer, whereas the self-employed worker bears alone, and in full, the cost of their top-up health cover. For a family, that difference represents several thousand euros a year borne entirely by the self-employed person. It is the other side of the same blind spot: a self-employed worker’s social protection is never co-funded by right.
The Madelin framework restores part of this balance. The contribution becomes deductible from taxable business profit, within a specific ceiling, provided certain rules are met: the contract must be “responsible” and the contributions paid regularly. At a high marginal rate, this deduction sharply reduces the real cost of the cover, with no reduction in the level of benefits. In concrete terms, health cover remains your cost — but the State funds a share proportional to your bracket.
Then comes choosing the right contract. Hospitalisation, optical, dental, fee overruns: spending areas vary greatly from one family to another, and tailoring has its price. This is where independent advice — from an ANACOFI member — adds real value: it arbitrates between level of cover, cost and tax advantage across the whole market, with no sales grid to defend.
What the self-employed discover too late
Lever 1 — size the cover on your real spending areas
Health cover is not chosen on an overall level, but area by area. A family with young children will prioritise orthodontics and optical care; a director who sees sector-2 specialists will watch fee overruns; another, hospitalisation and a private room. Paying for a high level of cover on an area you never use is evaporated budget. The choice of benefits — hospitalisation, optical, dental, fee overruns — is calibrated to your family needs and your budget, not to a standardised “all-inclusive” formula.
Lever 2 — align health, protection and retirement under the same ceiling
Health is only one of the three tiers of the director’s Madelin protection, alongside personal protection (replacement income) and retirement (the retirement savings plan). These building blocks share the same deduction logic and must be thought through together: an adviser helps arbitrate between level of cover, cost and tax advantage, and aligns health with personal protection for coherent overall cover. Optimising health alone, without looking at the margin it leaves for the other guarantees, is like reasoning on one piece of a puzzle you can’t see whole.
Lever 3 — secure the deduction: the non-responsible contract trap
The Madelin tax advantage is not automatic: it is conditional. A Madelin health contract must meet certain conditions — being “responsible” in the regulatory sense and resting on regular contributions — to qualify for the deduction. A poorly qualified contract, or erratically paid contributions, can forfeit all or part of the advantage. It is the pitfall many discover too late, on reading their tax assessment. Checking the contract’s eligibility upstream is as important as choosing your benefits.
Worked example — Marc, 47, self-employed architect in Nantes
Marc funds the top-up health cover for his family of four alone. He switches his contract into the Madelin framework — responsible contract, regular contributions — for an annual contribution of €3,600. Here, at a 41% marginal tax rate, is what that cover really costs once the deduction is applied:
| Indicator | ≈ Amount |
|---|---|
| Annual contribution | ≈ €3,600 |
| Tax saving (41% marginal rate) | ≈ €1,476 |
| Real net cost of the cover | ≈ €2,124 |
Illustrative example — figures simplified for clarity and not contractual.
The Madelin deduction brings a €3,600 contribution down to a net cost of around €2,124: the State funds nearly 41% of Marc’s family health cover, without his having reduced his benefits at all. The leverage follows the bracket — at 45%, the net cost would drop below €2,000; at 30%, it would rise to around €2,520. For identical cover, the single switch into the Madelin framework makes the difference.
This case is a reminder of an asymmetry the self-employed endure without always naming it: they fund alone what an employee gets at half price. The Madelin framework does not remove the gap, but it sharply reduces it — provided the contract is correctly qualified and the cover well calibrated.
Good health cover is measured area by area, not at the surface
This simulator gives an order of magnitude for the net cost. The real value is created upstream: checking the contract’s Madelin eligibility, calibrating the cover on your real spending areas, and aligning health with your personal protection and retirement within a coherent framework rather than taking out three contracts that never speak to one another.
Balmont Conseil is an independent wealth-management firm, a member of ANACOFI, with no capital ties to any insurer or bank. This independence lets us compare top-up health contracts across the whole market and arbitrate between cover, cost and tax advantage in your interest alone. Let’s arrange a meeting to audit your current contract and quantify what an optimisation, or a switch into the Madelin framework, would save you.
Frequently asked questions
Why take out my health cover within the Madelin framework?
Because, unlike the employee whose company health plan is co-funded by the employer, the self-employed worker funds their top-up health cover alone. The Madelin framework makes the contribution deductible from taxable business profit, within a specific ceiling: it therefore lightens the bill by a share proportional to your marginal tax rate, with no reduction in your level of benefits.
What conditions must my contract meet to be deductible?
Two main conditions: the contract must be “responsible” in the regulatory sense, and the contributions must be paid regularly. A contract that fails these criteria, or erratic payments, can forfeit all or part of the tax advantage. Checking the contract’s eligibility upstream is therefore as important as choosing your benefits — a point on which independent advice provides real security.
How do I work out the real cost of my health cover?
The simulator applies your marginal tax rate to the deductible contribution. At 41%, a €3,600 contribution generates around €1,476 of tax saving, bringing the real net cost to around €2,124. The higher your bracket, the greater the relief: this is the leverage of the Madelin deduction, identical in principle to that of personal protection.
How do I choose my benefits without paying for nothing?
By reasoning area by area rather than on an overall level. A family with young children prioritises orthodontics and optical care; a director seeing sector-2 specialists watches fee overruns; another, hospitalisation. The right contract is the one that concentrates cover where you really spend, and stays lean elsewhere. An adviser helps arbitrate between level of cover, cost and tax advantage.
What is the difference between Balmont Conseil and an insurer or a bank?
An insurer defends its own contracts; a bank, those of its network. Balmont Conseil is an independent wealth-management firm, a member of ANACOFI, with no capital ties to any insurer or bank. We compare top-up health contracts across the whole market, check the Madelin eligibility of your contract and calibrate your cover with regard only to your family situation — with no production target to hit.
Results are provided for purely illustrative and educational purposes, based on the parameters you enter and simplified assumptions (2026 taxation, constant return, excluding inflation). They constitute neither personalised investment advice, nor tax advice, nor an offer to subscribe. Some investments carry a risk of capital loss. Before any decision, speak with an advisor.