Please can anyone let me know how easy/difficult it is to obtain health care in France, whether for minor ailment with a local GP or, heaven forbid, in an emergency. I would like to know any procedures that have to be followed in preparation for our move as my 6 year old has a habit of breaking things - like limbs.
I read the following in Connexion and, as they say, forewarned is forearmed.
"Entry into the healthcare system stinks. Even if you are legitimately entitled to it, you have to fight tooth and nail to get it and when you have children involved, it's just not fair." (from the letters page in The Connexion).
Thank you so much Suzanne. I did a bit more research after my last message and the Auto-Entrepreneur and the Portage system seem really good for me. I work freelance (minimal income, just enough to pay the bills) so the reduced workload of (a) trying to sort the French tax system out, and (b) their taking social security payments etc at source should help me a lot. I’m trying to establish my client base here so I can literally take it to France on the PC. It’s tremendous fun (not) being a single mum and trying to think of everything in advance: schools, french lessons, pet passports, how to find a car, insurance etc etc, so I really appreciate your input. It assures me I’m on the right track. By the time I free up my money in London and find a place in France Shaun will miss the June deadline for school registration but I’ll have to deal with that when we get there. Another item for the post-it notes…
sorry you'll get used to acronyms - ~Regime Social des Independents (social security for self employed). For info on how to become self-employed (there are mulitiple ways depending on your income level) Auto-Entrepreneur is an easy way but has a capped income level at 32,100e for service provider or 80,300e for sellers. Otherwise Microentreprises are the other method & vary depending on the nature of your work. See www.StartBusinessinFrance.com for more info on business set ups.
We're Auto-Entrepreneur (we only work part of the year for decent earnings, the rest of the time we are trying our hands at developing various web ideas we have & starting/increasing our family!) so the AE level cap works out ok for now. We found it really easy to get sorted & the healthcare set up was automatic once we registered as AE. We bought our mutuelle through AXA which seemed reasonable.
Sorry, I’m thick. What’s RSI (apart from repetitive strain injury which I already have!)? I would be self-employed, working online from home (assuming I can find a semi-rural house that has some sort of connection otherwise I’m stuffed). I would be declaring/paying tax in France but would be identified as self-employed.
It really depends if you plan to work either salaried or self employed? If you intend to work then it shouldn't be difficult to get healthcare. You would be entitled to state care and would then consider paying for a mutuelle (top up) insurance policy. For salaried people I believe healthcare comes from CPAM for self employed whether micro entreprise or auto-entrpreneur I understand it is RSI. What are your plans?