[Mutuelle - what level of cover is needed?]

Despite the ambulance bill of 600€, I still wonder if its worth it

We're

a family, I'm in my 60s, and I have an ALD illness.  So last year if I

read the RSI statements correctly, without a mutuelle we'd have payed 20

visits to the GP at 7€, about 300€ for a (needless) endoscopy, about

£130 for the specialists, and about 40€ for the drugs.  Total 600€. 

Mutuelle bill was 1500€.  That leaves 900-1200€ worth of additional

unexpected costs to break even.  (As it happens I could probably hop to the hospital, it's under 1km away). 

I'm the same with all insurance, I'll take the biggest excess (franchise) they'll allow me, I know damn well if I make a small claim they'll jack up the renewal cost; so it's never economic to claim except for write-offs and such disasters.

I get specs online, which is much cheaper than buying here even after the mutuelle coughs up its bit.

Does anybody know how one might

easily start to run up bills of over 1000€ without a mutuelle?  It

sounds silly, and I'd much rather no-one in the family had a dread

disease or car crash or nasty turn, but I think my question is what

would such events cost?

Steve

PS I'm a bit uneasy about this, because I really do like the mutuelle/no medical questions aspect, and it feels a bit like cheating, but I think if we were unlucky enough to have someone parked in hospital for many months then don't the RSI start to pick up more of the bills anyway, and couldn't you just sign up for a upmarket mutuelle from now on?

[Jaw dropping prices but where else to go?]

[quote]Bought a wardrobe this summer 199 euros - just checked on the Ikea website and the same thing here is £146.[/quote]

Amongst all the mad prices I think this seems more reasonable. 

1 They would have set the prices a year or more ago, when a rate of 1.20 would have seemed reasonable

2 Employment costs are certainly higher here (although I suppose land is cheaper) so they might have to add something on.

Of the two, 199€ sounds more like the normal price, seems more as a result of a calculation.

It would interesting if you could compare the same wardrobe price in Germany, Sweden etc

Steve

[Jaw dropping prices but where else to go?]

erm I have to say I bought Ibuprofen (générique) yesterday and it was 0€95 for a 12 pack so fine

[What a great idea!!]

[quote user="Alan Zoff"]

Move to France and miss English produce. Hmmm.

There are other things I might miss but, with the exception of decent tea, supermarket food is not one of them.

[/quote]

Vindaloo, vindaloo, vindaloo

and thai, singaporean, hot vietnamese, cantonese ......

[Jaw dropping prices but where else to go?]

Yeah well, buy it and pay the postage (ok not bags of sand).  At least we have the option, the poor sods without English (or spanish or german ...) just pay I guess.

But tell you what.  If anybody is making an expedition with a big van, and can drop stuff in Sete (34 near Montpellier), I've got a little list and be only too happy to pay.

Steve

[E106 expires January, does an ALD entitle me to coverage]

I see mentions that if you have a sufficiently nasty illness or accident de la vie, then you can continue to get coverage from the CPAM even after the E106 expires (I'm an early retiree).

Can someone direct me to this please@

Is having a recognised ALD good enough?

Thanks

Steve

[E106 expires tomorrow. Just been to CPAM]

>>That's when I produced the prepared letter (thanks for that!) duly

signed it in front of her and handed it over. She glanced at it and had

obviously seen it before.<<

Sorfry to be a twit but I cannot locate this "prepared letter"

Steve