Fabian will be able to explain how the rates are calculated but I would imagine that the 5% without additional cover are probably youngsters who won’t need it! Being a pensioner or otherwise is irrelevant as far as I know. However, if you are without much in the way of income, for whatever reason, you don’t pay at all. Unfortunately, for those of us foreigners who are on a 5 year carte de sejour, being without income means we can’t stay…
I have heard a number of French people complaining that poor people got their knee replacements etc done for free whereas they had to pay - usually by having a mutuelle. Sounds a familiar complaint doesn’t it? I remember hearing people like my mother saying that young women got themselves pregnant in order to get a council flat… 
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