I would n’t wish these on my worst enemy.
Having previously suffered from these, I now take these every day - and have not had a re-occurrence since.
https://www.amazon.fr/gp/product/B01JSE9W2A/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
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So are we and we are careful what we eat. We use homeopathy, acupuncture, reflexology, cranial osteopathy, Alexander, take supplements. Paying directly for such support is a fraction of what we would be paying on monthly cover year in year out if we had a mid-range mutuelle
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Yes - fellow patients have described terrifying levels of pain, but I have to say I’ve experienced little. They actually discovered the stones when investigating the cancer - I had no symptoms.
One of the stones was over an inch across, and that kidney completely atrophied - luckily the other kidney is fine. After several lithotrities only tiny fragments of the stones now remain. The affected kidney looks a shadow of the other one on the scans, but apparently is better than it was.
Thanks for the Chancapiedra link - I’m open to herbal and other alternative remedies, but slightly hesitant I must admit - I’ll definitely research it though.
Is this where the ‘top up’ comes into play?
Of course… and the amount of top-up you wish to receive… and thus the amount you are prepared to pay for Insurance costs… is what you have to decide …
Insurance is always a gamble… and it’s up to the individual to think it through and make a decision they can live with.
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All of that is a given for anyone who has ever taken out any insurance for anything and considered the extras - new for old/NCB protected/electro-domesticos repairs/hazardous sports travel cover/vet fees…
Friends of mine have a dog which I say they are now renting because it has to have medication for the rest of its life but this was not covered in their pet ins.
I have consulted Fabian’s brochure, featured in another thread. What I do not know and is not explained there, is what the State pays for where there are Xs on the brochure. Without knowing what the policy does not cover which is included in the State health provision, it is not possible to make a definitive decision.
One does not want to pay for something provided under the State health system, nor fall into a hole not covered by a policy or the State.
Does having cover under S1 mean that one does have a FR social security number? It did in Spain.
Show me the bit of the ‘brochure’ you are talking about and I will explain.
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The brochure link is in this [short] thread
I tried copying the actual brochure link but got a message telling me that it was not possible [for some tech reason]
You will see Fabian tells the O.P. “No need to go fishing. It’s all here” - link follows.
To answer my question as you have offered to do [thanks] you’ll have to pretend to be me for the purposes of 
…
Single. FR Social Security Number [assuming the S1 does include this] d.o.b. 20/08/1949.
The brochure then lists the 
and 
The State will pay the set standard amount/percentage for each of those medical acts. So, for example, osteopathy is not covered by the state health cover so you will receive O% unless you have al all singing, all dancing mutuelle. For most things the state pays around 65%, and sometimes more, but other items down to 15%.
So you need to think about your own state of health.
This link will tell you about each item.
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it’s also worth noting that Hospital is only paid 80% by the state… and the remaining 20% plus fees etc … is at the charge of the patient…
(which begins to explain to my why a friend was faced with a potentially horrendous bill, after suffering an unexpected accident… the EHIC did not cover it… and no travel insurance… aaargh )
just take a look and make a best decision…
I used to go to the USA twice a year on photo shoots, back in the 70’s/80’s. Never had any insurance and never asked whether I was covered on the job. I suspect not. Fortunately, the issue never arose.
Then, 25 years after my last visit, at +/- 65 I went to NYC. A tooth started giving me shooting pains at the sligtest pressure - hit the ceiling type pain - then, minutes later, I blacked out. I was gone. No amount of yelling in my ear by my friend had any result.
I came to, feeling groggy and took the advice of the ambulance crew to go to hospital - might have been a stroke. Trip in ambulance - 8 miles. Hospital, a very smart setup in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. a very well-to-do place.
Didn’t take long for the finance dept to get to me. Fortunately, for the first time ever, I had taken a Full Monty policy - as you should if going to the US at that age, with a touch of hyper-tension.
I never saw the bill for 3 1/2 days in I.C.U., having had every test known to man, including cardioscopy. I saw the ambulance bill - US$800.
My father never had a day’s illness beyound a cold all his life but keeled over and died age 77. My mother had a series of h.a.s - 4 or 5 - from her 60’s on. Finally one did for her, age 84.
It is a lottery, indeed.
Does the UK S.1. cover more than would be the case for a FR patient, bearing in mind that the UK NHS pays 100% and the S.1. scheme is a reimbursment procedure?
Stella answered your question above. Copying again in case you haven’t seen it.
Izzy x
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Of course. In one ear, out the other …
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I have looked at the link posted by Jane Jones. I don’t have any conditions that extend further than very light scrips for specs and statin/hypertension pills.
So it’s a weird, existential game of ‘choose your illness’ in advance. If, like my pa, I’d had no illnesses beyond a cold until cardiac arrest took him down, at 77, I could put money aside for good times or bad.
If, like my ma, I’d already had 3 M.I.s by the age I am now, I’d know which way the wind is blowing.
As it stands, I have no idea.
How do you feel about risk? And do you have any financial cushion?
As if you have no, or just a small, financial cushion then something like a hospital only policy is probably wise. That is where the big costs can get you. And you are at a period of your life where these things are perhaps more likely to happen.
Beyond taking out something like that, unless you are strongly risk averse, if you are in reasonable health right now why not just wait and see? You have only just settled here and maybe need more time to work out what your living costs here will be and what sort of level is affordable for you?
On the other hand, if your financial cushion is large and fluffy then you can take out a top of the range mutuelle and perhaps not even feel the impact on your bank balance. Or just ditch the whole concept and self-pay!
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Jane, thank you lots. People pay good money for advice as well considered as that.
No large and fluffy anything chez moi. Any vestige of fluffy has been shorn down to the wood in the 4 weeks I’ve been here by the sort of unforseen and pricy problems with vehicles that might well be the case with self. Fortunately, I’m still roadworthy.
So it’s got to be the other - the lean and hungry end of things. At least my S1 is imminent, I’m told.
I shall take your advice and kick back, scope the options, wait and see. Sale or rent of my flat in VLC would transform the picture… sort of modestly fluffy-like.
Why not discuss with Fabien, who will give sensible advice?
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I always find is that the dearest insurance is the one you do not have.
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