Lot-et-Garonne CPAM cancelling category S1 Cartes Vitales 31/12/20. Other depts likely to follow

Hi everyone,
Jumping into the conversation, this is a rather long thread and I think it digressed a bit so I must admit I’ve only read the initial post from @SuePJ but Sue, can you confirm when did you apply for the S1 initially (date)? Also when were you accepted into the French system and provided with a “carte vitale” (approximately)?

@fabien Reached pension age at 60 in March 2007. Arrived in France July 2007. Applied sometime during second half 2007 and provided with carte vitale in a matter of months. OH originally provided with carte vitale under the auspices of my application.

Thanks for the heads up Sue. I have literally hundreds of British (ex) citizen I insure and you’re the first to tell me that kind of story so it’s kind of frighting. I must admit that, from a French perspective, this seems quite unlike what I would have expected so perhaps your case is mostly a matter of bad luck as it happened that your “rights” renewal date was exactly the same date as Brexit and because of that you’re caught in the ether, have you got any other news since? Have you tried calling the English speaking helpline too?

As a side note I would like to add that I’m 100% certain that you’ll keep your rights no matter what because I’m also insuring quite a lot of non European customers and they all were accepted into the French system. The real question here is how cheap (or free) would that be (access to the French system)?

@fabien I realise the thread is long and therefore tedious to read so I will repeat here what I have already posted. And please note that I am far from alone in this among my acquaintances in Lot-et-Garonne. So no, it is not a matter of “bad luck”.
I firstly sent a message to Ameli. This was the reply:

Bonjour,
Suite à votre message du 04.10.2020, je vous informe que les documents
fournis pour l’obtention de vos droits à l’Assurance Maladie indiquaient
une date limite au 31.12.2020. Je vous invite donc à renouveler vos
démarches pour la prolongation de vos droits à l’Assurance Maladie
française.

Avec toute notre attention,
SOIZIC CHAMPAGNE

I also contacted their English speaking helpline. This was the reply:

MISE A JOUR DROITS
Chère Madame JARVIS
A l’heure actuelle, nous sommes toujours dans l’attente de nouvelles informations concernant le
BREXIT ; la commission européenne se réunissant ces jours-ci, nous sommes également dans
l’attente de nouvelles instructions concernant les droits de nos assurés anglais résidant en
France.
Nous ne manquerons pas de vous prévenir quand ces informations nous seront données…
Avec toute mon attention,
FERNANDEZ Fanny
Votre correspondant de l’Assurance Maladie

A third scenario: A friend going through the same process was told it was an “anomaly” and that their “expert” M. Giordan, Olivier would restore her attestation to its year-long validity. Which he did.

Hi Sue, I work at The Local France, we’re happy to chase this up for you with the Interior Ministry and CPAM - could you email me on emma.pearson@thelocal.fr to give me a few more details?
Thanks

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Hmm et pour nous, les ecossais??? What a mess it all is and such a huge worry.

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@TheLocalFrance Hello Emma, that’s really nice to see someone with influence here, taking the matter in consideration… really appreciate this and also, welcome on SFN :wink:

@SuePJ I’m really intrigued as I’ve not had the case yet with my customers but this sounds like dreadful news. I still think there is some bad luck involved here but mostly because of the “renewal date” of your cover as most of my customers have had rights provided for many years and therefore don’t have to renew their rights at the end of the year which is basically postponing that situation for them but unfortunately you have to experience it first hand and that’s never good in a situation such as this one.

I’m actually twice as curious about all how the whole thing will be unravelled now. What about the carte de séjour in 2021? Do you have one? Will they “terminate” it because you no longer have some kind of medical cover in place? This seems so unlike what we’re used to in France that I find it hard to believe but I fear I may be doing “wishful thinking” and I hope this is not as you describe as this would be really bad for everyone so hopefully they’ll (the French gov) come up with a solution quickly.

@TheLocalFrance => Your email doesn’t work, just tried to send you one and got the following message:

" Your message wasn’t delivered to emma.pearson@thelocal.fr because the address couldn’t be found or is unable to receive email."

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Should end .com Fabien, I think.

I spoke to Emma yesterday lunchtime and she was very interested and was going to start investigating.
Good that other folk have had the same idea as me.

Our Attestation ends in Dec.2020, so we are very concerned.

I already had a request in to a Minister in UK, via my MP, to try and see if Boris Johnson would promise that our healthcare would continue to be covered and that he would not remove any more parts of the WA.

I updated my MP’s case worker with all this nedw information with an urgent heading, so I will keep you all informed with what reply I receive.

Mind you I asked a question on the 19th May and have only just received a reply!

@fabien I have been here twelve years and have NEVER had to “renew my rights”. The date is a rolling annual date. Check today and the year ahead for today is shown. Check tomorrow and the date is a year ahead from tomorrow.
This is the first time we’ve had an end date of less than 12 months and of course it is to do with Brexit. The end date is no coincidence. You may not have come across it because (a) your clients are not S1 people living in the Lot-et-Garonne. (b) none of your clients have bothered to check. I hadn’t - it was only when I got a round robin email and went and checked that I found this.

We have cartes de sejour - applied 2 years ago. Of course they will terminate it if we have no medical cover in place. It is a condition of holding the card. We will HAVE to have cover. So if the worst comes to the worst we will pay for it (and that seriously would be “the worst”).

I think there is little sympathy in the French govt towards our plight, given what is currently being said on their website. In view of the “uncertainty” stemming from their government, Lot-et-Garonne CPAM could be said to be behaving entirely appropriately :

French govt relevant page: https://brexit.gouv.fr/sites/brexit/accueil/vous-etes-britannique/Acces-aux-soins.html

I get tons of “newcomers” every month and they are all provided with “attestation de droit” that overlap into 2021. I’m attaching an example of a lady (who didn’t get it through an S1 indeed) but I have many other examples with S1 holders where we can see the end / renewal date being late in 2021 Attestation de droit (58.3 KB)

That’s why I think that the guys who are dealing with your file (and some others that share your fate) and probably overzealous or picky and clearly I remember hearing Mr Macron saying on TV that everyone that got into the system prior to Brexit would be able to remain in the system (that was in September) so I would be really mad to find out this was only a lie.

I completely sympathise with you and that situation is simply ridiculous, I mean, we all know the CPAM and their processing delays… and we all know that it takes 2 to 3 months at the very best to get something done so how can they expect you to remain covered if they still can provide some guidance less than 3 months away from THE date?

I’m really sorry you have to experience that Sue and clearly I wish this is all just some big confusion at the public level with workers being either too lazy to bother or too picky but if it’s not I can’t even tell how shameful I would be toward my government who’s not dealing with that crisis “the French way”.

Just as a side note, I’m part of an Entrepreneur union and thanks to that I have a seat at the local CPAM’s office (for litigations - in Bayonne 64). You’ll like the irony of the CPAM’s budget where I saw a line called “AME” (more here) which is literally the state paying for medical expenses of people living in France but who are not legally entitled to stay here in theory (so in an irregular situation). The AME in 2019 costed the state almost 1 billion euros (nation wide). In comparison, the estimation of the cost of the “free social security” for British expats in France is less than 250 millions and we have almost 200.000 English speaking expats in France so this is just non sense to throw tons of money away toward people in an irregular situation and not be able to spend a quarter of this to people (Brits) that are to stay and that are adapted to the local economy (buying properties in France, buying French products, etc.). This doesn’t make any sense to me and I would be more than disappointed if it really ends up that way.

Sorry about my long complain but that’s really a mess and I expect better from the “Pays des droits de l’Homme”.

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This whole issue seems to boil down to the fact that BoJo has passed a law that says that the UK is prepared to break international law and, to me, it is either a huge cock-up (remember people who were told that they had no rights because the UK was not in the EU because they were not in the euro) or we are being used as pawns to bring BoJo to heel.
Seeing that we already have had letters telling us that in the event of No Deal the UK government was only prepared to pay for our healthcare for six months in the event of No Deal, we seem to be in a very ‘unhealthy’ place at the moment.

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:rage:

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Tears too I think Fabien.

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Today while chatting to the lovely Geraldine at Amelie I noticed an old attestation in my file from 2016 was dated 01/16-07/16! :thinking: My brain did not have the where with all to investigate further :crazy_face:
Geraldine said latest update this week was S1 will keep us covered, but nous foulons des coquilles d’œufs. If I have any problem in January 2021 to call them immediately.
image
Cat should be drumming its ‘fingers’ :joy:

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Fabien I do think that giving sans papiers a chance to earn the right to stay in France by working for 5 years and giving them basic healthcare during that time, is more respectful of human rights than the way the uk treats desperate human beings, packing them onto a plane with so many armed guards that they have no room to social distance and sending them anywher just to get rid of them

What ‘“free social security” for British expats in France’? The UK pays for those with an S1 & those who are employed or self-employed are paying cotisations just the same as anyone else enrolled in the French healthcare system.

Mmm… got this message on my screen today… will the “maintenance” change Attestation hiccup ???