Refusal of E106

[Cadeby]

My husband and I are moving to France to take up permanent residence in July 2004. Newcastle have just confirmed that neither of us are entitled to Form E106 as we have both only been working part-time over the last few (qualifying) years.
Given that recent legislation has banned the use of totally Private Health Insurance, how do we go about joining the French Health System?
We do NOT intend to work in France as we shall be living off private UK pensions. Neither of us are anywhere near State Retirement age ( 44 and 38 years respectively )so E121 is not an option.
We are buying a 27 acre farm which we intend to operate as a small horse-breeding stud and will be paying cotisations to the MSA, but our expected income is likely to be so small that we will be paying cotisations at the lowest level, which does not give us any health care benefits.

Any advice as to where we go next would be greatly appreciated - we are starting to panic now!!! Thanks in anticipation.

Helen.

[Will]

If you get it in writing from Newcastle that you are not entitled to E106, and you take this evidence to your local CPAM, you should then be able to join the French system.

Will (50)
Forum moderator

[Owen]

Hello,

You can apply for affiliation to the French heallth system under residence criteria which will involve a financial contribution. However under certain circumstances you can have private health insurance and at least initially this may be a better bet than applying under residence criteria depending on what revenue your contribution is based.

You have to resident in France for at least 90 days before you can apply for affiliation under residence criteria so you need cover for these 3 months. E111 is one possibility and is better than nothing or you can take out private insurance. Certainly you will need a rejection of E106 letter from Newcastle before affiliation under residence criteria will be considered.

If you do apply for affiliation, say in November, the contribution will be based on your income for the period 1 Jan - 31 Dec 2003. It is calculated as 8% of the difference between a threshold of 6721 Euros and your income after any allowances. This threshold is reviewed every year so is likely to be slightly higher by November. The threshold is per household and not per person. So if your earnings were high in 2003 then your contributions will reflect this income.

Regards

Peter Owen
pjowen@expathealthdirect.co.uk

[Pucette<P><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>Pucette<FONT><P><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt">"Qui ne connaît pas la campagne lhiver, ne connaît pas la campagne et ne connaît pas]

You could ask to make full payments to the MSA if you preferred; it might be worth discussing the possibility with your local Chamber of Agriculture (or the MSA).