Autoentrepreneur?

Dear Claire

My understanding is that it is the law that you must be insured for the reimbursement of medical expenses if you live in France. Since the passing of the European Freedom of Services Act in 1994 you have had the right under Europen, French and French insurance law to insure such risks with any insurer registered in the European Union.

I suggest that you contact Amariz Ltd (www.amariz.fr & freephone 0 800 900 258). This company has specialised in providing medical insurance cover for persons living in France since 1990. Everthing is bi-lingual English/French as are the staff. They will be able to answer your questions in detail. Also you can apply for cover on line and, assuming there are no adverse medical conditions that have to be considered, cover can be issued immediately.

From personal experience I can affirm that reimbursements are made, usually by wire transfer, within 24 hours of receiving all the paperwork.

The insurers of the contract are Lloyd’s of London

Good luck

Ian Swan

Hi Sheila,

as the ae system doesn't cost you anything, unlike all the other statut juridique where you have to pay heavy cotisations from the word go regardless of income, I'd set yourself and Henry up as AEs. That way you'll both be in the system, especially if Hollande does make changes to it/freeze it/abolish it. I'd go for enseignant for you and I'm not so keyed up on Henry's situation as I'm not sure where they pigeon-hole artists, you may have to play with the list of jobs a little. The job title doesn't really matter apart from the difference between service and sales - if he has to buy a lot of materials then try and get something in the sales list of jobs rather than services ;-)

Hi Claire,

a mutuelle is a top-up health insurance as the french state system only reimburses about 70% of medical costs. You can't have a mutuelle until you're in the french health system though - do you have a french social security number/are you already insured by the cpam/rsi/msa/cipav...? Mine is a small local mutuelle that covers people here in the aveyron and the surrounding département and probably isn't on pharmacie lists elsewhere but for info: http://www.lerefugemutualiste.com/ and I pay 20€ a month for basic cover.

Hope that helps ;-)

Hi andrew i dont want to sound totally clueless here but i am lol

I just want an insurance quote for my husband only at the moment,

do you have a link of the company your with?

Also what is a mutuelle?

Thanks for your help

I've just clicked the link you've given me... read the small print at the bottom of the page: it's going to cost you 96€ to register using their site!!!

there's only one official site: http://www.lautoentrepreneur.fr/ which you were using and that's the only one you'll ever need. the others are companies that'll take money from you for doing what you can do direct... ;-)

totally agree Andew - we would never be without a mutuelle. We've already had far more money repaid than the cotisations we have paid over the past 3 years! As an example each pregnancy cost over 1000 euros in scans, GP visits etc, vaccins are racking up to around 500 euro including Dr Visits, Jasmine had Kine twice a week that added up a lot and she was admitted to day hospital 1000 euros for tests as to why she was petite. Imagine having to pay 30% of that lot! That's not including all the day to day visits for sickness, routine check ups etc. Dentistry is also included in my mutuelle & opticians which also saves a fortune compared to paying private in the UK.

Thanks Andrew. My French is not fluent but will take a look. I had thought of registering Henry for sales of his paintings, but I think we might be heading into jungle territory. I think we need to register one of us with the other as the ayant droit, but which one? Artist/peintre, chambres d'hotes, TEFL...... Any and all advice is much appreciated. And yes I know this has all been covered before in the AE discussion/group but the threads are so long, I had hoped to piggy back here on Claire's post.

Thanks Suzanne

@ Sheila - ok yes absolutely. We've been through it. We registered on official site, was fairly straight forward but we used the AE guide from www.startbusinessinfrance.com as there wasn't much help around back then (possibly pre SFN even!)

Our attestation de sante came through pretty quickly but our Carte Vitales took 2.5 years!

exactly Suzanne ;-)

Sheila, get a mutuelle for the reasons I've just said above - it doesn't matter whether you're salaried, self employed or retired - you're not protected properly without one ;-)

As for which to plumb for, I'm not sure which category chambre d'hôte come into and so which tax level you'd pay. It's not sales, it's more a service and not artisanat either so if they put it into prof libérale with teaching it won't make any odds. Will depend what you'll be doing most of - sales only pay 12% odd cotisations because you can't claim any expenses/materials etc whereas prof libérale pay 18% and services 21% more for each if you pay tax at the same time (13/20/23) Have a good read through the official site, it's very informative ;-)

sorry Andrew, misunderstood your post, so is Prevadies like RAM Gamex?

AXA is a paying insurance like any mutuelle but Prévadiès oe any of the others are, as I explained above, for the admin part of paying the reimbursed part of health costs. eg I pay my cotisations to the URSSAF, they pay what I owe to the RSI who in turn pay what I owe to Prévadiès or the URSSAF pay them direct, not too sure but that's not important! I then have a mutuelle, réfuge mutualiste aveyronnais (like AXA but local and cheaper but you'll never find anyone who can speak english or standard French either!) Having a mutuelle is very important as a serious accident or illness could leave you with thousands to pay as the state only pays around 70%

And yes, I've said it a hundred times already - please please please use the official auto entrepreneur site - it's free and official. the others are companies who charge you for something you don't need!

Have you seen this blog? http://freelanceteacherinfrance.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/auto-entrepreneur-wolf-in-sheeps.html not sure if there is anything useful here for you or not? Might be worth a look.

Re: the apply online & net-entreprises - I found this fairly ok, though we use an accountant to do our tax return.

Hi Suzanne. No we don't have a carte vitale, which is one of the main reasons for becoming AE, which I understand will get us into the system, as well as giving us French tax number, etc.

Hi Sheila, the top up company will want your French state health care number. Do you have a carte vitale already?

Hi all. I'm just gearing up to register as AE. Should I go and register for top up health insurance first? I'm thinking of registering as "Teacher" as in TEFL but could register as offering chambre d'hotes. Any thoughts?

sorry should have added AXA rep - Jean Laplanche details:

3, bis place du 14 juillet 34120 Pézenas

tel: 04 67 09 42 42 - fax: 04 67 09 42 98

e-mail : agence.laplanche@axa.fr

http://www.lautoentrepreneur.fr/adherez.htm is the official site we used I think for registering online directly with the authorities.

ok thanks so much i will have a read about

claire :)