Private Health Insurance?
Nov 27th 2016, 8:38 pm
#1
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Thread Starter
Joined: Sep 2014
Posts: 298
Private Health Insurance?
I'm British but coming from Japan to live/retire in France, but not yet quite at the age to get my British pension.
I believe I will have to have 1 year's private health cover until PUMA kicks in, right?
But does this mean with a French company (or a foreign insurer based or linked to France)? I assume Japan side wouln't cover me and I wouldn't feel happy with their cover anyway.
But this would mean entering France and being there a while if or until I could get French cover set up? Isn't that not allowed?
Advice appreciated..
I believe I will have to have 1 year's private health cover until PUMA kicks in, right?
But does this mean with a French company (or a foreign insurer based or linked to France)? I assume Japan side wouln't cover me and I wouldn't feel happy with their cover anyway.
But this would mean entering France and being there a while if or until I could get French cover set up? Isn't that not allowed?
Advice appreciated..
Nov 28th 2016, 6:51 am
#2
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Joined: Jan 2012
Location: Dépt 61
Posts: 5,254
Re: Private Health Insurance?
The rule is that as a resident, you need private health insurance until your cover with PUMA kicks in. You can apply for PUMA once you've been living in France for 3 months. So technically, you may not require a full 12 months' private cover (worst case scenario you may need longer if your application is delayed). But in practice, yes you would probably look for cover for a year rather than mess about trying to take out cover month by month, since you don't know in advance exactly how long you will need it for.
I think the only condition is that the cover you have must be at least equivalent to the cover provided by PUMA ie it has to be proper comprehensive cover with no exclusions and not capped too low. It doesn't have to be with French insurance company. But bear in mind that you may be asked to provide evidence of cover, and if all the documents are in Japanese they'll need to be translated.
It's a condition of legal residence that you have health cover in force. I suppose you could come over as a tourist and stay for up to 3 months with no healthcover if you wanted (not a good idea but AFAIK there is no requirement for visitors to have healthcare, although it's expected they will have travel insurance that will repatriate them in an emergency) but it wouldn't count towards your period of legal residence. The "legal residence clock' only starts ticking from the point when you fulfill all the residence requirements, obviously. You would need to clock up 3 months legal residence, with healthcover in place, before you can apply for PUMA.
You can take out healthcover online or over the phone, it's not difficult (as long as you don't have pre-existing medical conditions). Cover can be set up within hours, the time it takes to fill in the form, get a quote, accept it and pay the premium. You could do that before you arrive (assuming you have some means of payment, ie a French bank account or a credit card that they can accept). I think most people make sure it's all set up and ready to go in advance of arriving.
Hope this helps.
I think the only condition is that the cover you have must be at least equivalent to the cover provided by PUMA ie it has to be proper comprehensive cover with no exclusions and not capped too low. It doesn't have to be with French insurance company. But bear in mind that you may be asked to provide evidence of cover, and if all the documents are in Japanese they'll need to be translated.
It's a condition of legal residence that you have health cover in force. I suppose you could come over as a tourist and stay for up to 3 months with no healthcover if you wanted (not a good idea but AFAIK there is no requirement for visitors to have healthcare, although it's expected they will have travel insurance that will repatriate them in an emergency) but it wouldn't count towards your period of legal residence. The "legal residence clock' only starts ticking from the point when you fulfill all the residence requirements, obviously. You would need to clock up 3 months legal residence, with healthcover in place, before you can apply for PUMA.
You can take out healthcover online or over the phone, it's not difficult (as long as you don't have pre-existing medical conditions). Cover can be set up within hours, the time it takes to fill in the form, get a quote, accept it and pay the premium. You could do that before you arrive (assuming you have some means of payment, ie a French bank account or a credit card that they can accept). I think most people make sure it's all set up and ready to go in advance of arriving.
Hope this helps.
