I’m hoping that my wife retaining FOM will take at least some of the pain out of a move post December. I believe it spares me the requirement of a visa.
Who knows, think positive and maybe the S1 system will continue. The negotiations aren’t over until they are over.
Fabien might pop in to give the expert view, but my impression is that mutuelles don’t care about pre-existing conditions, just age.
We don’t have comprehensive mutuelle cover, just for hospitals. This is much less - around 600€/year for both of us in our 60s, rather than around 2,000€. I do have chronic conditions that are expensive but they are covered by the wonderful ALD 100% system. Apart from that we are in good health and quite ‘English’ in that we don’t for to the doctor unless we absolutely have to, so maybe pay 150-200€ Ourselves.
So it is not mandatory to have a mutuelle.
Thanks Jane. Useful information
Jane you rightly mention the value of the ALD system which I’ll need to tap into. My condition is on the list (number 24 I discovered today 
). How would I go about registering on the scheme? I assume I’d need written evidence from the NHS which I’d then take to my GP in France??
OH came over with a serious health situation. We brought all info from UK Doc. Our French Doc gave him a complete “MOT” and agreed with UK Doc.
Then it was a question of French Doc applying to have OH officially accepted onto the ALD system.
As I recall, the ALD needs to be “renewed” every 10 years… generally, just a paper exercise.
Our Doc handles all that stuff… and just hands over the renewed document for us to keep in our files (which are a mountain high). 
It’s France, there’s a form!!
If you bring at least summary of your medical history and translate key facts into French that may well do it, although some doctors like to verify for themselves. I had a big file stuffed with scans, x-rays, my medical notes, blood tests results etc etc. And had done a single page A4 bullet point list in French. My GP glanced at the size of the file, read the single page, and filled in the form. Which then gets sent off to be authorised, and you get a copy to keep. As Stella says, renewable every 10 years.
It took months for me to get a specialist appointment so it was great that in the meantime my GP was happy to prescribe my drugs/blood tests and do the necessary for my ALD to be registered.
In hindsight I would have worked out which GP I was aiming to sign on with and booked an appointment with a specialist months before I moved over as the wait was so long. Some say that their GP does this for them, but that’s not my experience. The GP might suggest a few names, but we generally do the research and book the appointments ourselves. And then tell GP who writes the referral letter.
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Marvellous, thanks very much Jane & Stella 
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Im just re reading some of the advice and recapping my first steps on here.
Jane you sent a list of conditions covered before. My medical file has been produced and is waiting for me to pick up at the GP tomorrow. Then i will do a summary as you suggest a bullet point a4.
I will sign up with a medecin traitant from next week or the week after then wait 3 months to apply for care vitale.
But the carte de sejour portal opens before then…
Can i still apply for the carte de sejour with temporary private health cover, and then apply for carte Vitale end October once my 3 months are up?
Somewhere else you said you were going to be working. Which makes things potentially very different. Workers don’t need to wait to sign up to join the health service. If you are employed then you will be signed up immediately, or if non salaried then you can also apply straight away.
I think carte de séjour you still need to wait three months to show you are a stable resident, but perhaps this is also waived for workers. I don’t know, but no doubt others will. Although since you will be applying via the new portal no-one knows for 100% certain what will be required.
However the thing you need to be very alert to is that it has now got much stricter about accepting AE/ME as a justification for things like health care and titres de séjour. It used to be that people could set up a micro-enterprise and as long as they earned something it would be accepted. But there is now much more scrutiny about whether the business is “régulier, effectif, et durable”. And it has to be backed by proof - contracts, professional insurance, registration with appropriate chambre de métiers etc etc. So expect to be asked questions.