Shame you only quoted half of what I said!
why??? you said something to @rendi60
I responded to what I felt was the more important part of your post… the “level of cover” is something folk often don’t think about properly…
Very interesting point about the S1 @JaneJones . So in fact, many British retirees on a low income may think obtaining an S1 is advantageous, however, if they have a low income, it’s actually a disadvantage. As a matter of interest, and I’m thinking that many retirees are maybe thinking the same thing right now, do you know what the income threshold is for the CSS?
À partir du 1er avril 2022 , une personne seule percevant moins de 9 203 € de revenu annuel a droit à la protection complémentaire de santé solidaire. Celle-ci ouvre l’accès aux consultations médicales, aux traitements, aux soins dentaires, optiques, aides auditives, dispositifs médicaux, etc., sans avance de frais.
I think things have changed since Brexit and new arrivals are expected to have a certain level of income and health cover (???) someone will know…
Thanks @Stella - well that’s a bit lower than the current UK Government pension, so I would imagine retirees would actually be exceeding this, unless we suddenly see parity between sterling and €.
the threshold is below current full retirement pension from UK…
As far as I am aware, if one is entitled to the S1… one cannot refuse to have it…
Incidentally… in our commune… a frenchman died, after spending his last years (ages) in hospital/instution… and the family were asked if they wished to claim the Inheritance or pay the outstanding bills… they declined to pay…
The French State sold the property… receiving peanuts against a huge bill…
distressed sales in such circumstances rarely have a good end result…
The land we purchased for our new build was acquired under similar circumstances.
10 years prior to our purchase, 2 hectares of building land with various buildings/shelters sold for the princely sum of 10k€ to pay off various debts left by the deceased owner and further costs later to make unstable buildings safe owned to the commune.
Yes, a basic visa for an “inactif” requires each person to have an income of £18,655 (or monthly equivalent), but apparently the consulate will accept an S1 as proof of health insurance. Different categories of visas have different requirements of course, but all require you to be able to support yourself.
WARP’ists without S1s also need to take care, as in the first 5 years one is supposed to be financially stable and applying for CSS could bring you perilously close to the threshold -or under it. So could make yourself ineligible for a renewal of your carte de séjour. After 5 years the financial thresholds fall away so you can be as poor as you (don’t) like without penalty.
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Problem is it’s not really meaningful for anybody to look at their own situation, since that might change in future. What’s really needed are large-scale survey-based calculations (such as, indeed, those no doubt carried out by the insurance actuaries!).
Does anybody know of any such research available to the pubic?
We have full mutual cover, but I too am inclined to think putting the money in a savings account might be a better bet.
Same here, that’s something I will be looking into in the autumn.
Not sure if the law changed very recently but Opthal prescriptions always only had a lifespan of 3 years before you needed to visit again for a further prescription and hence why a dispensing opticien would not accept a prescription that expired after 3 years in case of new problems they are not qualified to diagnose. This is why newcomers to eye tests in France have to see an Opthalmologist(e) before anything else
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Certainly our decision to see an ophthalmologist has proved to be essential. We started to see him some years ago and yes, we had to wait some months for our first appointment. OH is being monitored annually for a condition that (fortunately) at the moment is dormant. I have been transferred to the eye clinic in Bordeaux because in addition to cataracts I will also need a corneal graft when the time comes and they are monitoring me every six months. It’s probable that neither of our conditions would have been picked up by a high street optician. And unfortunately any treatment for our eye conditions would be barely covered by our mid-range mutuelles as malinois says.
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~Which is perhaps why the Law is possibly changing…
If I arrive in France and find my old prescription is no longer sufficient… as my eyes have changed (they tend to do that…) I can’t wait 12 months to see an Opthalmo… I need my glasses right now !!!
As I have said… I didn’t use an Opthalmo for several years after arriving in France. My eyes change every couple of years… easily adjusted by the Opticien…
could do with an opticien who can do that… do they use Bones’ tricorder?
Mine usually responds to ordinances from ophthalmology 
for spelling
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That easily confused as French is ophtalmologiste, so I have now got accustomed to this…
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I think I’ve mentioned it elsewhere… for the first few years, I used a local Opticien… who did the necessary and adjusted my lenses accordingly. No problems whatsoever…
Nowadays, my Opthalmo and Opticien work in cohoots… one time, my Opthalmo forgot the prisms and my Opticien had to chase him, after my new glasses had me seeing double… 
Once the Opthalmo entered the scene… the opticien had to follow his instructions…
phew… they both are on the same wavelength now… and I know them both well enough to shout… if necessary.
My eyes are naff… but they are healthy… despite all…
happened to vanessa too… but the manager in the opticien outlet we use, Generale d’Optique, is really good… she was able to get it done (unlike Brexit) fairly swiftly and without any hassle.
People buy from people…
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Both my opticien and my opthalmo are “car nuts”… so we all get along very well…
EDIT: Our Doc and some of the Specialists are also “car nuts” … which can bring some levity into a dark/dire situation…
It might, if the return was anywhere near useful. Or are you using the term ‘savings a/c’ as a place where money can sit about [attracting laughable interest] until needed to pay a medical bill?