Damvillers

Hi

Me and my family are moving to France in a couple of months and I am under the impression that we need health insurance

Can anyone confirm, and help would be appreciated

Thanks

cyrian

It would help to know a bit more about your circumstances.
Will you be in employment?
Are you married or civil partnership?
Do you have children and what ages?

The answers may be different depending on your response.

Damvillers

Thanks Cyrian

I will not be employed straight away but my partner will be employed but not by a French company. It is our own company that will be paying him to run our fishery.

We have a daughter who will be one when we move there.

we are not married though

Any help will be great
Thanks in advance

EuroTrash

If your partner is living in France and carring out paid work, one way or another he has to obtain social security cover via his work.

If it's a temporary secondment then your company needs to apply to HMRC/DWP to obtain a worker's S1 form, and if they consider the application meets the criteria and the S1 is issued it means he remains in the UK social security system, he continues paying NICs to the UK, and the UK will fund his healthcare whilst in France via the French state healthcare system.

However, if it's a permanent move the UK won't continue to be responsible for his healthcare and your company needs to set up some kind of business entity in France and pay his salary and his French social security cotisations through that; or if you don't want to do that, you can register with URSSAF as a company with no establishment in France but employing workers in France, and pay his social security contributions that way. It can all be done online, it's not that complicated but the cotisations are quite high. http://www.urssaf.fr/profil/employeurs/dossiers_reglementaires/dossiers_reglementaires/entreprise_etrangere_sans_etablissement_en_france_ 01.html explains it all.

Whichever route you take, your partner will then be 'in' the French social security system, and this will cover his family as well. If the S1 route is open to you, he needs to have his dependents named on his S1; if he pays cotisations and gets cover direct from France, he adds you to his cover as 'ayants droit'.

What he can't do live and work in France but still keep the same NI and tax arrangements as if he was still in the UK, that is not legal and it would lead to all kinds of problems, one of which would be the fact that you'd be left without any social security cover.

Remains the question of buying property together without making your partnership official - look into how succession tax works in France and you will see why this is not a wise thing to do and why it would be a good idea to get PACS'd.

jvc

FYI I was working initially for a UK company from home, but because they were not based in France I could not get affiliated into the health system here, so had to have private health cover. In the end the logistics of it weren't working out so I finished, then as soon as I had they allowed me to go onto my husband carte vitale. Madness really!

EuroTrash

The issue being that if any company based outside of France - including a UK company - employs you to work in France, at home or otherwise, they must by law either get an S1 to cover you, or employ you on a French employment contract and pay French social security cotisations to URSSAF for you. Then you are in the French system. Otherwise, you're working on the black.
People break the basic rules, and then they act surprised and blame the system when they hit problems with the authorities...

dmu

Not madness at all.
Had you not been working, you would have been on your OH's Carte Vitale as dependent straight away....
P.S. @ OP
Have to agree with ET - life will be much simpler for you if you get married or pacséd!

jvc

I have never got to grips with the private health system in France. We live in the countryside, between 2 large cities and not that close to those cities really, so not sure how your cover works, and if you need to have private treatment do you visit a private hospital, like the UK, or whether public hospitals in France see private patients.

dmu

Some one with private health insurance will be able to explain, but I do know that you should enquire in advance about fees/extras if you consult or have treatment in a private clinique which isn't "conventionnée" (attached to the S.S. system). Such consultants' fees can be limitless....
Any one can consult or have treatment in a public hospital - AFAIK, if you haven't got French S.S. insurance (= Carte Vitale or Attestation), you pay up and get reimbursed afterwards by your Insurance Organisation, whichever...
Some one more in the know will come along!

howiet01

It can be bizarre. I am auto entrepreneur/CDD, my wife works from home for a UK company and who has a carte vitale......my wife!

EuroTrash

Presumably, then, the UK company has played it by the book and is paying cotisations for her. That's how it's meant to work.
As complex systems go, it would be pretty straightforward if people didn't try to bend it and twist it every which way

howiet01

I very much doubt her company is paying her cotisations in France as she is still PAYE in the UK(currently receiving maternity benefit).

EuroTrash

Well with neither a workers S1 nor somebody paying cotisations, either somebody made a mistake or somebody bent a rule for her to get a carte vitale.
Since she's PAYE in the UK, presumably HMRC has been informed that she's living abroad and have issued a workers S1. At a guess.

howiet01

As far as I thought she is entitled to one as we are married? The children are also on the card. They want an official stamp on my birth certificate before I am lucky enough to be on with them!

ps French bureaucracy making a mistake or bending a rule?!

EuroTrash

Well.. possibly in this case, French bureaucracy not having been informed that she's employed?