This may help with the EHIC / GHIC confusion - snippet from the page:
'To be eligible for a UK GHIC, you need to meet at least 1 of the following criteria:
cheers for the link… seems I need do nothing until 2025 anyway…
and then I’ll renew my EHIC (rather than change to GHIC which doesn’t cover some “local” countries…)
Just side tracking from my main question… on EHIC/GHIC cards… currently EHIC cards are issued by the French for reciprocal health care in other Eu countries, and as far as I understand, they can also be presented, if asked for, in the UK. If you move over to the S1 route, the UK will issued you with a GHIC, which is now what UK residents are using for any emergency care in Europe, as they now replace the EHIC card as UK can no longer call it a European card, because they are out of the EU, so they have to call it a Global card. For the time being, we obvioulsy both have French issued EHIC cards
Susannah, I think this is a very interesting point. It could happen whereby the NHS says do you know what, we can’t afford to prop up folk who have chosen to live outside the UK, and then it will be left up to us. I am pretty sure the S1/health care was negotiated in the Brexit deal to appear not to be ditching out on their citizens, but you can’t say in a few years time, another government may say, we need to make economies in the NHS and this will have to go.
As far the French side goes, I believe that once you are in their system and you have permanent residency, you become their responsibility. My husband became 66 last year, but we have not had any request to present an S1 from our local CPAM.
But as Susannah suggests, what happens if NHS gives up the S1 and you need to go back into the system using PUMA, and what happens if it is a more right wing French government in place who says they don’t want non-French citizens to be a financial burden? A bit alarmist, as Susannah suggests, but it is a thought.
When I posted my original question at the beginning, it is because I am in a slight quandary as to whether we should submit or not, or whether we do nothing and don’t rattle the cage. We think very highly of the French healthcare system and are very grateful to be in receipt of it.
I think it highly unlikely that you ever will. Often these things only get triggered when you do something that raises the question in an official’s mind.
So many time on SF I have read people complaining about some difficulty that “they were never asked”. In general here it’s up to you to work out the right thing to do,
I don’t think this is strictly correct - if you’ve been resident since before whenever the final Brexit agreement kicked in (Jan 2021? I’m losing track) then you still get an EHIC card which can be used in the UK as well (I got one issued at that point). The GHIC card is for “normal” UK citizens to use while on holiday. People who became resident after the cut-off date are in a sort of half-way house. My very flakey memory says that it’s an EHIC card without the right to UK treatment but it could be a GHIC card
I do think you would be switched to a UK version of the health card, so the GHIC, because now through the S1 route you are under the umbrella of the UK. So, from France if you go off to Spain and need health care, you will present your newly issued GHIC card which tells the Spanish that it is the UK paying and not your country of residence. As far as I was aware, UK cannot call them EHIC cards any longer because they are no longer in the European Union. Another aspect to consider is that I believe our Mutuelle covers us outside France, but would it if it was paring up with a non-French health card?
I’m sorry to disagree but I have been issued with an EHIC card under the withdrawal agreement because I was in France before 1st Jan 2021. If you look at this page, it explains the difference between EHIC and GHIC and people in the same category as me get an EHIC card!
I’ve also just checked the UK government pages on healthcare in the UK if you are resident in France and it basically says that you are covered in the UK only if you have an EHIC card from the country in which you are resident OR you have an S1 and were resident before 1/1/21
Yes, my EHIC has to be issued by the UK as I have never worked in France. I think it might possibly be a slightly different type of EHIC than I would have without an S1. And I still retain the right to have a GHIC as well which who knows, might one day have cover in lots of other non-European countries around the world too, as ISTR in the sunny uplands that were promised by the UK leadership after Brexit became a reality.
Sorry to cause confusion, Angela, but are you saying you have been issued with an EHIC card from the UK? I honestly thought you are only issued with one by the French because you are in the health system are you are a French resident. I don’t quite understand how the UK is able to call them EHIC cards anymore. I thought their replacement was now the GHIC card which is why I am saying if you go down the S1 route, and swap allegiance, you will be issued with a GHIC by UK… but you are saying it is definitely an EHIC card?
So have had a quick look at the government link you sent, which suggests there is a “new kind” of EHIC card issued by UK under the withdrawal agreement, and only for S1 holders. Our EHIC cards are issued by the French, because we were already in the health system before Brexit, and are not dependent on the S1. So if my husband swaps over to the S1, am now not sure which kind of UK card he would be given!
this EHIC is like mine only mine’s dated 2025
and on the rhs the number is CRA456765 (not UK …CRA as in this old-style example)
I am covered by the Withdrawal Agreement
Yes I am! It’s not dependent on when you get your S1 but on when you arrived in France. The link I posted is the current one for applying for an EHIC/GHIC card and seems to me to be quite clear.
If you are currently in the France system, via PUMA and with a mutuelle, you maybe have a France issued EHIC? In which case the mutuelle still functions, depending on the program you signed up for.
Reading previous posts in this thread seems like there is a bit of confusion around the EHIC / UKEHIC / GHIC designations.
UK folks in France currently holding a UK issued EHIC can continue to use them until they expire. So far so good.
WA pre 1/1/2021 UK residents in France with an S1 submitted to CPAM can have a UK EHIC (with little flag in the top corner!) This highly desirable card is accepted in many more countries than the new GHIC because it has kept all those of the old EHIC.
UK residents coming to live in France after 1/1/2021, so not covered by the WA, and submitting an S1 to CPAM will have a GHIC. Unfortunately, accepted by fewer countries to date.
Pensioner or early retiree with no S1 submitted to CPAM, who is a recipient of France healthcare, can be issued an EHIC, connected to France, not UK. A French card, not UK.
All that, without saying the French!
Thank you for that full explanation! We are in the last group.
Indeed you currently are in the last group BUT if you get an S1 and have been here for more than a couple of years, you’ll be in the first group!
With the lucky little flag in the corner! 
Or, not 
Yes indeed! The need to plaster flags all over things isn’t something I’ve ever really related to!
