Will You Still Be Covered By The Health System In France?
At the beginning of September a wave of panic and confusion more matured the expat community in France : radical measures by France's new president would soon be introduced meaning that thousands of Britons enjoying early retirement in France could lose their rights to state health care beneath a replacement law that limits edges to nonworking expatriates. The new rules will apply to all non French EU nationals, not only to the Brits. During his election campaign earlier this year Mr Sarkozy said: "If you're thinking that fifty three makes you previous enough to retire, then fine, go ahead and retire. But do not expect the state to buy it."
The modification considerations Britons who have retired to France, aren't operating, and are not nevertheless old enough to receive a UK pension, which represents around vi,000 people.
Till currently British expats were allowed to pay contributions (eight% of their income) in order to get treatment through the French health-care system via the Couverture Medicale Universelle(CMU) however most of them previously covered by the NHS took up French residence before retirement age and benefited from France's healthcare system while not even paying for it. This in fact is unfair as France should not must foot the bill of early retirees just because they were benevolent enough to try to to thus in the past.
There is an analogous scenario for these early retired expats on low incomes who will not be ready to assert free health insurance via the CMU anymore or for those that have reached UK retirement age but don't qualify for a UK pension.
For all those expats insured via the CMU, the French authorities will provide them till finish of March 2008 to search out personal health insurance. However these changes won't affect retired people receiving a state pension from the UK. They will keep their health insurance in France via type E121.
In the short term, new arrivals in France don't want to worry as they will be covered for up to a pair of years by using the E106 kind- this price being met by the UK government. Personal health care can must be taken out and bought by these people in the long term though. Cover starts at around 1800 Euros per year for a healthy 60 year previous requiring solely basic cover and who is willing to pay a prime-up himself for bound treatments. If the same person requires full cover then the cost of insurance can be around 2700 Euros per year that once you compare it to the cost of private medical cowl in the UK is truly still very reasonable.
Expats who are used, self-employed or who live with or married to a French person are unaffected. It is the same for those that live with or married to an individual in possession of an E121 or E106 form.
The French government points out that, as laid down in EU Directive 2004/38, it will not have any obligation to pay the health-care prices of non French EU nationals who have never worked in the country, and nor will it have any obligation to let them pay to affix the French health-care insurance system via the CMU. With the very best public spending in the EU, France is desperate to reduce its deficit and isn't willing to carry on spending to learn immigrants.
There are but a smart number of folks who come to France who are disabled or with serious conditions who may be denied free treatment. The negative publicity from this could encourage the French authorities to re-assume this angle to those specific teams of people. And there's a risk they will allow expats taking early retirement in France to continue paying their health insurance contributions via the CMU. We have a tendency to will not understand for certain till the beginning of 2008 when the ultimate laws have been passed and can update you whilst we have a tendency to hear about it.
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