At the beginning of September a wave of panic and confusion
passed through 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
under a new law that limits benefits 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 think
53 makes you old enough to retire, then fine, go ahead and
retire. But don't expect the state to pay for it."
The change concerns Britons who have retired to France, are
not working, and are not yet old enough to receive a UK
pension, which represents around 6,000 people.
Until now British expats were allowed to pay contributions
(8% of their income) in order to get treatment through the
French health-care system via the Couverture Medicale
Universelle(CMU) but most of them previously covered by the
NHS took up French residence before retirement age and
benefited from France's healthcare system without even
paying for it. This of course is unfair as France should
not have to foot the bill of early retirees just because
they were benevolent enough to do so in the past.
There is a similar situation for these early retired expats
on low incomes who won't be able to claim free health
insurance via the CMU anymore or for those who have reached
UK retirement age but do not qualify for a UK pension.
For all those expats insured via the CMU, the French
authorities will give them until end of March 2008 to find
private 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
form E121.
In the short term, new arrivals in France don't need to
worry as they can be covered for up to 2 years by using the
E106 form- this cost being met by the UK government. In the
long term however these people will have to take out their
own private health insurance. Cover starts at around 1800
Euros per year for a healthy 60 year old requiring only
basic cover and who is willing to pay a top-up himself for
certain treatments. If the same person requires full cover
then the cost of insurance will be around 2700 Euros per
year which when you compare it to the cost of private
medical cover in the UK is actually still very reasonable.
Expats who are employed, self-employed or who are living
with or married to a French person are unaffected. It is
the same for those who are living with or married to a
person in possession of an E121 or E106 form.
The French government points out that, as laid down in EU
Directive 2004/38, it does not have any obligation to pay
the health-care costs of non French EU nationals who have
never worked in the country, and nor does it have any
obligation to let them pay to join the French health-care
insurance system via the CMU. With the highest public
spending in the EU, France is desperate to reduce its
deficit and isn't willing to carry on spending to benefit
immigrants.
On the other hand, with more and more stories about people
with pre-existing conditions, or disabled being denied
health treatment in France the negative publicity may
influence the French authorities to be a little bit more
indulgent. And there is a possibility they will allow
expats taking early retirement in France to continue paying
their health insurance contributions via the CMU. We will
not know for sure until the beginning of 2008 when the
final laws have been passed and will update you as soon as
we hear about it.
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Niclas Dowlatshahi is the managing director of Leapfrog
Properties who are French Property agents specialising in
sales across France. http://www.leapfrog-properties.com
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