Hello Doreen,
I'm glad to hear that you have managed to get some kind of assistance.
Yes Finn it is possible for people to 'think' that they are below the limit when they actually aren't. Not everyone knows about the forfait logement etc.
However, the case that I described had no other benefits to be taken into account, the figure was genuinely miles below the threshold.
I wonder if it was anything to do with being an expat? OR Trying to save a bit on the budget? lol
It's possible and a lot of people, especially the French or those who are unfamiliar with their rights in France tend not to bother to question or to argue, even if they feel they have been unfairly treated.
In the end, who knows!
I remember trying to calculate the prime for emploi once and then the tax office came up with a much smaller (and I mean much smaller) figure. I had based my calculations on the 'formule' that the tax office are supposed to use. However, they told me this was wrong and that there was no 'formule' that it was a secret variable known only to the tax office. Which isn't strictly true! Anyway, they re did the calculations and increased the amount of PPE.
It's true that treatment and procedures vary from place to place, when we changed department we found the tax office to be far more fair/efficient!
Hello again Catharine,
I will admit that the CMU-C is as close to free of charge as it can be, however most expats are unable to benefit from this because it is means tested and therefore not freely available for all (as 'generally' their right whatever their circumstances).
For the most part, people have the cover 'de base' and then pay for insurance or a mutuelle to top up the difference, almost always leaving a reste a charge, like 1/1.50€ each time you see a nurse or a doctor, or 50c for each box of meds, maybe some hospital charges for example. Also, very often the CMU de base + the mutuelle/insurance does not cover the complete cost of say dental and optical care.
Having said that, the French system is supposed to have a good repuation and people are meant to be able to avoid waiting as long as they might have to on the NHS.
There is good and bad in everything, I've had both good and bad experiences with the French health system, just as I had with the NHS.
Hi Doreen,
I know someone else, another expat that applied for the CMU/C and they were refused too and their income was well below the threshold.
So you're not alone!
It even happens to French people too, the CPAM use delaying tactics or request things that are 'missing' which weren't actually missing etc Then it ends up being to late to qualify or too much effort to continuously chase.
However, in an attempt to avoid singling out France, incompetency and dishonesty can appear in any country :)
OK Catharine, no problem.
Besides, if people really thought that everything in France sucked, they wouldn't be here!
Quite right. If, having moved to France, you can't hack it for whatever reason, and you want to go back to the UK, then go.
Just don't lose sight of the reasons that you abandoned the old country to begin with, and chose to move here. For some, it doesn't work out (as I know to my cost, as it proved too much for my wife, who legged it back to the Former UK). But I don't regret a single moment having come here to live, even though I'm not one for "integrating", and the costs and bureaucracy can be a nightmare, all in all my life here suits me well, and here I'll stay.
Chris
Seconded.
Excuse me, but I am simply trying to point out that portraying the UK as some kind of heaven on earth and France as hell is unjust because both have their faults and pluses. However, some of the notions such as 'free' NHS and so on are fallacious because we are stopped out of income at source for that service, etc, etc, etc. I have simply noticed that if, following this thread, all the things that are classified as bad/wrong/awful, etc in one column and another for the things good in France then the result should be obvious. But add more columns to compare the UK... Nowhere, but nowhere on this planet is perfect. I am not competing, I am sincerely sick to death of France knocking. The two things Catharine refers to and especially the likes of Justice for Lucie and the stories about disabled people being declared fit and forced to find work at present are the real face of the UK.
We made our choice, we live here in France, we take the bad with the good and I too say, slagging off everything is silly.
If you qualify for the CMU and the CMU complementaire it is entirely FOC.
And apologies if you thought I was accusing you (Vicky) of slagging off everything about France. I just feel that this thread has become one of those ‘everything in France sucks’ threads which doesn’t really help the OP.
Catherine,
And Vicky - your comment that "
That's true there is no NHS here, even the regime de base isn't free if you can get it and then you have to pay for top up insurance and still can't get 100% cover or sans reste a charge as they say here." is simply not true.
What makes this statement untrue?
Many things suck everywhere.
Also, I do not slag off everything in France, that's ridiculous!
In the UK when I ran my business I was paying if I remember £250 a month for PPP cover. When I first came here I was still being paid a salary in the UK but for only briefly until I retired but the two national authorities accepted that and I got a Carte Vitale on arrival. I have only recently got a mutuelle (about 60 euros a month for the family) but it doesn't include drugs for which I have to pay about 50 euros a month for various conditions. However I still think I'm doing better here as generally access is good, and I've benefitted by having had several operations and emergencies all of which cost me very little (two thromboses, two cateracts, dislocated knee, heart investigations, ruptured Achilles and Planter's tendons, polyps etc etc!) . My late wife had two years of intensive, often daily, care and treatment. I remarried and had a child born here in a French hospital and who is being educated here free. Whilst some of these things are reciprocal costs others are not and therefore I expect to pay some taxes here, providing that they are lawful and correctly applied. I also expect to play a role in my community. I have very carefully thought about the respective lifestyles that we could enjoy here in France or in the UK and I have concluded that here is better for us. One reason is that I have been in France of and on for so long that I bought in very much cheaper than I could have done in the UK.
I was given a prescription renewable for six months for the two things I need at present, the pharmacy offered to give me two months a time. For practical reasons. Given the amount of stock a dispenser may need to hold it is most practical to administer one month at a time. If I wanted to end it all then a month's supply would be far more than required, so it is not that. Stockpiling to be able to kill oneself means that monthly dispensing does not stop that. But then I know that other countries do the same. When my mother died because she had been ill for years we filled a plastic shopping bag to take back to have disposed of and then the dispenser looked at us disprovingly... I am not sure what the issue is because I think it all comes out the same in the end. Incidentally, it is not just France who prescribe/dispense this way, Switzerland do and in my time in Germany it was normal - I used to sometimes collect pills for a neighbour and in Italy it can be as fequently as a standard 28 dose pack a time between visits to the doc, not even several months on a script! But, of course, they are all wrong aren't they?
There is an element of common sense in that Jane...the Uk they will often give scripts on demand...which wastes money. My dad when he died had a mad amount of drugs in the house....a years worth that he didnt ever use and that got thrown away by the chemist. But its the parental thing, the attitude that drives me nuts...like you might take them all at once!
Perhaps they think we won’t last longer than a month!
its patriarchal being treated like a child, only allowed one months drugs at a time....the patient is an adult...why not treat them as such?
We have to collect our “basic” drugs each month, but also the pharmacist will help you out if you need something you have had before and cannot get a doctor’s appointment.
He argued with them the first time he went in to collect a script (English Doctor versus French Pharmacist) they have been at odds ever since. I will let him know what you say...whether his adversary will listen is another matter! but thank you for that Finn.
:)
Sorry Catharine....I think its become a contest with Brian and I now....give me time and I will come up with the pluses for France....its just that now I am back in the UK cant think of any off the top of my head! (joking!)
he gets the scripts for 6 months.....the pharmacist says legally she can only give out one month at a time1