Retired people

[Tillac]

Hi, my parents who are retired are going to live in France with us. Do i understand correctly that they will automatically receive free health benifits in France.

 

Paul

[Teamedup]

Not at all. The only thing that is covered at a 100% are specific illnesses. So if you have say a cancer that is covered with 100% and you get flu that will be reimbursed as for the rest of the population.

They will need the initial E forms from Newcastle and then apply, I would assume, to join  the french system.

Reimbursements vary between around 30% for some things up to about 70% for others. We have to participate in hospital care too. It is because of this that most of us take out top up insurance usually with a mutualist. However, many companies do not cover new clients over a certain age. And some companies do not cover for the first three months of the contract with them.

 

Also we now have to register with a GP by 1st of July. I can only suppose that these registration forms will be issued automatically to people new to the system.

 

 

[BJSLIV]

Tillac

What Teamed Up says is correct But for a couple both aged 65 it should be relatively easy to find  good comprehensive cover for between £100 and £150 per month. If you are willing to accept significant exclusions and or excesses then cover can be found for even less than this.

[Val_2]

They should apply to Newcastle for their E121 forms and then when in France to live, visit the local CPAM with these, their pension papers,birth certificates etc and register there. A mutuelle will be needed to pay for the other percentage that the government does not pay for and you can opt for a percentage but would advise that elderly people take out at least enough to give them a 100% cover. Unfortunately the older you are, the more you pay for the top up and this can easily cost more for a couple of retirees than for a complete family of four or five people a lot younger.

[Llantony]

[quote]Tillac What Teamed Up says is correct But for a couple both aged 65 it should be relatively easy to find good comprehensive cover for between £100 and £150 per month. If you are willing to accept si...[/quote]

Oh!  that's £1200-£1800 a year if my maths is correct.  That would be a large percentage of my other half's pension (I won't have one).  What happens to people who can't pay?

Maz

[Teamedup]

We don't have to have to take top up cover. It is a choice. We get so much back from the SS for our medical care and it is up to us to pay the rest or take out a top up. 

 

 

NB that is basically how it is for the majority of people. Specific serious illnesses can have 100% cover. And the very poor have some cover.

[Tourangelle]

I think it is more difficult for people coming in and joining the French system in old age. I know that my mother in law has a very reasonably priced mutuel although she is over 70, simply because she has been with them for absolutely years. This is where having a mutuel rather than insurance is a plus. She also does not have an enormous income.

[Coco]

I have no idea how the French system works.  It seems to be "look at the bill, stick a pin in the list of percentage reimbursements and charge that".

My mum is 75 and last summer she requested a hip replacement via her GP because the pain had become so great she was getting no more than an hour or two of sleep a night.  He asked her to take some medication for a month to see if that would help, at the end of which he decided to refer her to an orthopaedic specialist.  She saw the specialist, who then sent her to an anaesthetist, who then sent her to a cardiologist, due to her age for undergoing a general anaesthetic.  She paid for each of these visits there and then.  I told her that as she didn't have a mutuelle she was unlikely to get any kind of reimbursement.  Then we went to the clinic to arrange to book her in and they asked if she wanted her own room or to share.  She chose her own room with bathroom, TV and phone.  I could see these bills mounting horribly.  Then  because the operation was a leg op and due to her age, it may take her a long time to get mobile, the anaesthetist recommended daily anti-coagulant injections into her stomach to prevent DVT (3 weeks worth!)  This meant she had to stay in her private room for three weeks until the treatment was complete.

So all in all, several visits to three consultants, a 3 week course of an optional and fairly new drug, daily physio for 3 weeks, plus the op and private room.  I could see the bill being horrendous.  There were also lots of sharp intakes of breath and sucking noises as we told each person that she didn't have a mutuelle. 

At the end of the day she had to pay 1400€ for the room and she was reimbursed 100% on EVERYTHING else.  Now can anyone explain that?

I now can't get her to even consider a mutuelle.  As far as she's concerned it will be cheaper to pay for the treatment as and when needed rather than pay for an insurance she may not use.

Could it have been a fluke or could her age have anything to do with it.  I just don't understand!

[Tourangelle]

It does seem to depend on the operation. I went into hospital just the week before last to have an operation on my gums (hence I've been on the forum loads, I haven't been able to speak!) and I didn't pay a euro. I have a mutuel, but it didn't come into it, it was just free as it was considered to be an essential, non cosmetic operation. 1400euros for the hospital bed is a lot, I know that that is one of the reasons why my mother in law keeps her mutuel. Your mother was fortunate in going to a hospital, but if for whatever reason that had not been possible and she had ended up in a clinic she might have ended up paying a whole lot more. I think if it does seem so arbitrary it is also because when you do have a mutuel, they offer different levels of cover. I am perplexed by your mother having to stay in hospital for the anti coagulant injections, my husband had those when he broke his ankle, they are really commonly given, but the nurse just came to us.

[Llantony]

[quote]We don't have to have to take top up cover. It is a choice. We get so much back from the SS for our medical care and it is up to us to pay the rest or take out a top up. NB that is basically h...[/quote]

Sorry, when I said 'what happens to people who can't pay?' I meant who can't pay the bills!  I realise not everyone chooses to buy insurance.  There must be people who haven't got the cash at all, as well those who haven't got enough to pay up and then get reimbersed.  Perhaps like prescriptions in the UK, people on benefits don't pay.  But we will be living on  modest retirement pension so presumably will be liable for 30% or whatever is demanded at the time?

Maz

[Teamedup]

If a person is on a really low income, as usual means tested, then they can get something called the CMU. I believe that this has changed recently though and I'm not sure exactly how it works now. Some people get help with everything and others with part of their medical costs.

The CMU has not been in for that long. Prior to that then SS cover was very limited. If one was unemployed more than a certain amount of time then one lost one's rights. I knew a woman in our village who couldn't afford the around £1000 a year to make voluntary payments to the Secu, also she couldn't get a job........... BAC+6 she had, so she and her children were not covered. Truth is I used to worry about them a lot.  So in the grand scheme of things, in the past at least, those who couldn't afford it, probably didn't have treatment for lots of things. I suppose that there was the Red Cross and other charities that may have helped?

Many surgeons now  want several hundred euros as an extra fee that no one will reimburse. I'm pretty sure that unless poor people take out loans, if they can, then they will have to save, or do without some operations/medical treatment.

 

[Iceni]

I have said this many times on many parts of the forum but it still stands true as far as I can see.

"You need a cushion when you come to France - a bit in the bank, spare cash, a few thousand mazoola, MONEY".

If you come over here with a minimal pension and no cash backup you are looking for trouble and trust me lately we have seen that those without this cushion go from problem to problem. If say the bank make a mistake, there is no guarantee that they will rectify it for months on end. If you don't have enough to pay for your health cover in France then you could well have a very serious problem.

Our pension was decimated in the UK and we have very little to look forward to but we are making plans both in the way we do our build and also with our lifestyle to help minimise our outgoings if we have to. There are many things you can do without but health is not one of them.

John

and

[Weedon]

[quote]I have said this many times on many parts of the forum but it still stands true as far as I can see. "You need a cushion when you come to France - a bit in the bank, spare cash, a few thousand mazool...[/quote]

What you say is so true.

For anybody to even think of moving here permanently without the means to buy a good mutuelle would be better advised to stay in the UK and use the NHS should the need arise.

When you need good medical care you do not need the extra worry of whether you can cope with a complicated system and whether you can afford to pay.

weedon