If I have carte vitale via CPAM is there any great benefit of having top-up health insurance when although mid 50’s, single, am in excellent health? From what I can gather policies just make up difference from source cost and that taken by CV. Advice please!
hi Fiona,
I will join the folk and say that in top up is just a must because you never know what to expect. ther is few things you should know about carte vitale. you get 30% refund of the doctor’s note, but if you declare this doctor as “docteur traitant” in the securiy social you will get 70% which much better.
Also, if you are not working or have small income you might be eligible for CMU complementaire, it does cover what securite sociale doesn’t. You can have a look in their website and download the form
http://www.cmu.fr
But bear in mind there is always some exception so make sure you read everything.
good luck and be healthy
I would also strongly advise you to take out mutuelle insurance. Good risk management could save you a fortune if something happened to you, and you never know what’s around the corner.
I would strongly recommend it - it’s true they only make up the difference, and when in good health the policies seem expensive for the few euros you get back. But we have good friends (late 30’s, two children) who all in the space of a year had the husband smash his leg up in an accident and need hospitalisation for weeks, the ‘reeducation’ and then weeks and weeks of physio. Then the wife’s back went and she was hospitalised and needed a lot of physio. Then to top it all off their young daughter got leukemia, and was in hospital for months and needed huge amounts of treatment, the parents had to do bi-weekly 400km round trips and have overnight stays - a massive amount of (hundreds of thousands of euros) of expense. If they hadn’t had cover, they would have been bankrupted from the treatments, hospital stays and the travel which are only covered up to a certain level. I know this is a rather dramatic example, but if by any chance you should fall seriously ill, you don’t really need to be stacking up huge bills.
hi Fiona, I am single, mid 50s and have a mutuelle top-up insurance. I could in theory get the full amount back I pay in glasses/contact lenses and dental fees. Plus it makes up the difference as you say between what Social Security pay back and what you have paid out for doctors fees and prescriptions. But the real advantage, with as with any insurance, is if something happens and you are hospitalised. Somebody I knew slightly went into a coma and had four weeks in intensive care. The part social security didnt cover was tens of thousands of euros. He didnt have a mutuelle. Unfortunately he died, and they then pursued members of his family for the bill.
You can pick and chose what suits you best. A friend in the same position as me has never been to the dentist and doesnt wear glasses, so opted to exclude those items from her mutuelle and reduced the cost.
Incidentally I would be interested to know how you got on with getting into CPAM before retirement age. I am self-employed and pay through RSI, as I didnt have any other option at the time to get into the health system.
Yes this top up is a mutuelle… you can get them just for emergency hospital cover, right up to including teeth and eyes… even to incl homeopathy etc.
I would say it’s pretty essential to have the basic one, or the one which incl GP visits and prescriptions. last time I looked www.mma.fr had quite a good tool online to calculate the monthly price and what it includes.