We are planning on buying a house to live part time in France so we’re near our son and his French wife and their children.
I have an ongoing health condition and have had many spinal surgeries. I have private medical care and have used this for my consultations and surgeries in the U.K.
If I have any issues with my spine that aren’t emergencies I would travel back from France to London and see my spinal team so that’s not an issue. But if I have an emergency (i.e collapse, temporary loss of use of a limb - which has happened) how would this be dealt with in France?
I have been told ambulances are private and that would be paid for personally, and I have the GHIC card, but would I be best having further insurance to use in French hospitals?
The GHIC only provides cover equivalent to that of a French resident, typically around 70% but it can be a lot less. You would need some means of covering the rest of the cost.
OK, some years ago, a friend had an accident, a fall with serious consequences and ended up in hospital here. After initial treatment she needed ongoing operations and special care.
She had no additional Health Insurance just her UK card thingy… and the excess costs mounted up alarmingly. Eventually, the family in UK clubbed together and hired a private ambulance (£4000) to come to France and take her back to hospital in the UK.
No idea what it would cost to do that nowadays, but I always use it as a guide to explain why folk do need additional Insurance for visits to France.
and, of course, the UK Govt site confirms this… GHIC + Health Insurance including Repatriation
What nationality are you? As if British or American you will need a visa for stays over 90 days and a condition for getting a visa is comprehensive health cover. The GHIC provides as a minimum the same cover as a french national. The visa suitable insurance is more than provided by a GHIC, but may still be less than you need.
You will of course be treated, but then billed for full costs. Even with a GHIC you often have to pay and claim back.
You want a full cover personal private health insurance
I think you are right. I have friends who came on a six month visa and one of the advantages of the shorter visa was not needing extra healthcare cover.
At the time of the Brexit negotiations Macron did state that U.K. visitors to France would need both healthcare and reparation insurance. I think the GHIC when it was announced covered the first but the second was considered to be more of a travel insurance than healthcare insurance.
We’re British and have private insurance but it’s only valid in the uk (I think, but need to check the small print). I’m guessing I’d need another policy that covers me abroad
Clearly “usually” suggests that there are scenarios where it’s valid for more than 90 days. The French government site says that a GHIC is accepted as medical cover for a visitor visa for less than 6 months.
Better be safe than lose your property if you should run up a very large bill here and can’t pay it. If you have seen all the sob stories of people going to the US on holiday without insurance and being left hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt, think the same for leaving the UK, it can be very very expensive here if you need intensive care (€43,000 my friend got a bill for when her husband contracted MRSA after an op and had to spend three months in ITU - she only had to pay €400 in the end being a full time resident and under the CPAM).
Yes, i had a 6 month visa last year. All the visa services wanted was the GHIC card. I did have travel insurance too but that wasn’t on the list of requirements for a 6 month visa. More than 6 months and you require full health insurance.
Of course in many cases France will say the GHIC is acceptable… as it’s almost the equivalent of Carte Vitale… and it is not yet compulsory for “French Resident with CV” to have top up insurance.
France just expects people to pay the difference between CVitale/GHIC and Actual Health Cost and France does not (yet) worry about how people will actually manage to do that.
UK Govt advises GHIC + Health Ins/Repatriation.
well, that’s my understanding… frankly I’d rather have Insurance and never need it than land in the mire from a great height.
I can recall several cases of brits being made to sign and hand over cheques before any hospital admission some years back no, certainly pre-brexit because they did not have carte vitales or sufficient insurance cover to be treated!
