Uprating existing mutuelle plus query re transport

It looks like my impending surgery will take place in Caen, an hour’s drive away. This is not great on several levels but the care is said to be good so I’m not really complaining. However, I have a couple of questions…

  1. I’ve not been happy with my (rather low-level) mutuelle for some time but I don’t want to change suppliers mid-treatment, especially if I’m going into hospital in a week’s time. What I can do is upgrade my current one, which would give me more comprehensive cover, and I can do that instantly. BUT once the dust has settled, will I have to wait a year to move to another mutuelle i.e. will it classify as a new one? I have a little idea that a new mutuelle has to be in place for a year but that I can change it at any point after that time. Am I wrong?
  2. The letter that the surgeon sent to my MT said that, although I could go home after about 3 days, I couldn’t go in a car. I’m wondering why not, since most medical transport I’ve seen is effectively a car tyou can lie down in. Also, I’ve never used medical transport at all - do I have to source it myself or what?

Hoping you more experienced people can give me a few guidelines here :smiley:

When I had back surgery a few years ago, I wasn’t allowed home sitting in a car. The neurosurgeon arranged an ambulance type private taxi to take me home lying down the whole way. Due to the surgeons ordnance I had nothing to pay.
Good luck with the surgery :crossed_fingers:

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Thanks @Mark - that’s very reassuring. So it’s sitting up that’s a problem in a car and possible the neurosurgeon may arrange it. Excellent.

Thanks for your good wishes too - this sort of thing is a wee bit scary :roll_eyes:

Below is a link that I found some time ago:
https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/jorf/id/JORFTEXT000038766567/

The relevant bits that I’ve extracted are:
La loi du 14 juillet 2019 relative au droit de résiliation des mutuelles santé, est officiellement
entrée en vigueur le 1er décembre 2020. Grâce à elle, il est désormais possible de changer de
complémentaire santé à tout moment après la première année de souscription, sans frais et sans
condition.

The law of July 14, 2019 relating to the right of termination of mutual health insurance, officially entered into force on December 1, 2020. Thanks to it, it is now possible to change complementary health insurance at any time after the first year of subscription, free of charge. and unconditionally.

Just to clarify, you cannot cancel your policy on your own at any time but any other insurance company
can take over pretty much anytime as long as the policy is more than 1 year old (within a month notice).

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Thanks @Nigel-at-BUF-House - so my understanding was right for once! Now I have to find out whether upgrading an existing policy classifies as a new policy…

As other’s have said you can legally cancel your policy after a year. However the devil is in the detail and it depends on your existing contract as to whether you can only make changes at the end of a year, or can do it whenever you want. And changing can either be a rider or your existing contract or a new contract, so that makes a difference.

Have you had an indication from the hospital of the dépassement the surgeon;/ anaesthetist charge plus overall costs to make sure this is worth it?

As for taxis, my hospital experience is that the almoner sorted it and I just had to wait until a taxi appeared to whisk me home (literally! The speed he went at was a bit much). Again a question to ask on arrival, but I think most hospitals operate a bit like that as you can’t book a taxi as you don’t know precisely when you will be released.

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I should mention that two weeks ago I changed my mutuelle from Swiss Life (dreadful service) to Groupama.

Groupama had/ have an offer to new policyholders - the first year’s premiums are discounted.
I’ve gone from paying €155.05 (Swiss Life) to €109.98 (Groupama).

Purely by chance, my Swiss Life policy was terminated at the end of 2022.

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That’s also very reassuring @JaneJones , thank you. I do know that I can make changes at any time to the contract, as it’s fairly unusual in that respect. I don’t know whether it would classify as a new contract though so I’d better find out!

I know nothing whatsoever about charges - it’s a public hospital and a follow-on by a member of the team who took me on from Urgences. It’s a public hospital and I certainly didn’t get charged anything for my last stay. You’re right to suggest that it may not be worth uprating though - I think Mark implied that too. Perhaps better to change the mutuelle once the dust has settled a bit and I’m not having RDVs every 5 minutes :smiley:

we are with Swiss Life arranged through @fabien and never had a problem of any description…

@AngelaR is the surgery for an issue covered by ALD?
If so, the inbound and outbound journeys will be covered by Ameli and the hospital will arrange the transport outbound on the day of discharge.

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No - I’ve been pretty disgustingly healthy up until now and I’m not sure whether this will classify as one as it’s not going to get better. I’ve booked to see my MT this week after all the other RDVs so she should be able to advise I think.

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Just wanted to say good luck with everything, will thinking of you and see you both soon xxxx

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Graham you must be fortunate in your dealing with Swiss Life.

It appears that I am not alone in viewing their ‘service’ as indifferent.

A friend of mine recently had to have daily treatment for a prostrate condition and was taken to and returned from the hospital every day for a month or more by taxi, paid for by his mutuelle - apparently it cost €137 each way, but was covered. He’s now OK, but sadly his wife is currently in hospital in the opposite direction with a serious unidentified complaint. Like one other couple in our immediate circle, they’ve had a crap last twelve months.

Despite my friends’ misfortunes, I don’t think you need to worry about taxi costs also winter into Srping is the best time to recuperate ready for summer - hope all goes well!

I don’t think your condition is on the ALD 30 list, but ask whether there’s a possibility for ALD 31 or 32 - expensive conditions that have lasted more than 6 months, where hospital treatment is envisaged, and one other criterion I forget.

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Thanks very much for the support @cat - have been thinking of you re your Mum and hoping your trip was/is valuable

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Will do - thanks @JaneJones . I’m making a list of questions to ask her!

Online reviews are almost always negative, look at almost any insurance company on that website and they all have bad reviews. The ones that don’t are either paying the website owner (real thing as these websites work on affiliate based commissions) or are too recent to have enough reviews (or worst, they’ve paid some indians to generate tons of fake reviews). Swisslife offers one of the best customer service in France but I’m with you in thinking that french level of quality of service is far from what you’re used too in other countries. Some mutuelles also have decent level of service but they’re usually not cheap. For example, Swisslife got 4 medals in “les dossiers de l’épargne” in France which is the only official journal that does insurance ratings in France.

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of course… in some other countries you pay the premium and sometimes don’t get the reimbursements because its an insurance scam but hey, it had excellent ratings :wink:

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Well done… often I will do the same.
but I always discuss with OH what we need to find out…
and sometimes my mind can go blank… and afterwards I’ll be fuming at myself 'cos of something important I totally forgot to ask…
and OH just gazes at me innocently and says “you should have made a list…” :roll_eyes:

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I usually say “I need a new secretary” :slightly_smiling_face:

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