scrubbedexpat056

Hi All,
We have finally reached the stage of looking at health insurance prior to joining the French health care system. We are signing the acte de vente on 26th October and moving in around mid December. I know this has been discussed over many years and in various posts, but I was hoping I could get any latest advice on companies offering health insurance at a level accepted by the powers that be and for a reasonable price. Simple google searches have so far led to quotes of around 5500 euro per month so I'm clearly doing something wrong. Has anyone any recent experience they could offer with recommendations?
Thanks

graham.miln

I am not sure how competitive they are today, but we used https://www.exclusivehealthcare.com They appear to be "reviewing" their policies right now. I presume Brexit makes selling cover beyond March 2019 difficult.

In 2012 the prices were…

2012 health insurance prices from https://www.exclusivehealthcare.com

Pilou

In France as of 2016 there is PUMA. Every legal resident can join the health system. We lived 22 years in France as Dutch and we think the state health care is excellent.
The PUMA is for people who don't work and are not under a EU rule as a pensioner.

Here a link and you can google to find out more:
https://www.french-property.com/guid...es/health/puma

scrubbedexpat056

Thanks Graham.miln and Pilou, I have found a French based health insurance company that understands exactly what is needed and for how long before downsizing to a mutuelle and their prices seem reasonable. Other things have conspired to delay everything, but I am now technically on holiday in the house and we will start the paperwork when my wife gets here in the near future.

graham.miln

Good to hear you found someone to help. Please could you share the name of the French company offering the insurance? I am sure it would help others looking for the same service.

scrubbedexpat056

Sure, they are called Axelliance. They speak English over the phone for those of us not confident enough yet to deal in really important stuff in French and the forms are in English and French. I'm slightly wary of recommending them now because I haven't actually taken up the policy yet, but so far I can certainly recommend calling them up if you need health insurance, if only for a quote. I'll update later when we have more experience with them.

Tweedpipe

I have no personal experience of this insurer, and the name wasn't familiar either.
May be interesting (or a red-herring) that THIS was the 2nd link to show up following a 10sec Google. Of course it's possible that for every complaint there are dozens of happy clients, so I'll leave you to draw your own conclusions.

scrubbedexpat056

Hmmmmmmm. This brings up an interesting point about reviews of any service or product. I tend not to believe glowing reviews on principle since I think they are probably fake and paid for. But for some reason I am more willing to believe bad reviews, though it is well documented that people threaten to leave bad reviews as a form of blackmail and companies have often been found to have left bad reviews for their competitors. Also, I tend to think that the majority of people never really read the small print on even important documents like insurance policies and that exclusions are hidden away, but there for the eagle-eyed to spot. Then they get understandably upset at being caught out by the small print. I think I'm right that a French company will understand the specific needs of people (Brits) applying to join the French healthcare system with 100% coverage for the 3 months (+) and then a mutuelle. But as I'm also guilty of not always reading all the small print in English, there's a better chance I won't read it in French with the help of google translate. Maybe I'll take a look at the high street insurers and see if any of them offer a translated service.
Any more advice readily accepted.

cyrian

I would try to find a small agency that is willing to go that extra mile (kilometre?) to help you.
It worked for me with car insurance - I didn't get anywhere online or in the large agencies.
The "one-man-band" agency guided me through the process even although I didn't fit neatly into the french system.
HTH

Tweedpipe

Anyway it looks like you are doing the wise thing i.e. carefully comparing the markets. One thing to beware of of course, is to watch out for the cheap (and probably not-so-cheerful) policies which, while readily providing you with cover, may prove problematic and painful when it comes to any claims.
Hope you find one that adequately suits you.

EuroTrash

At the end of the day - why are you looking for this policy, is it because you actually need it to access healthcare (presumably you've found a way to do this up to now, is there any reason why you can't carry on using that route for another three months?), or is because you think CPAM might want to see current health insurance when you apply for your carte vitales?
Because depending on your reasons for taking it out, your criteria will be different. If it's for CPAM, all that matters is what it says on paper, regardless of whether it delivers or not. If it's because you actually need it, then customer service will matter.

scrubbedexpat056

Thanks for all the replies. You have hit the nail on the head EuroTrash, it is to fulfil what I thought were the requirements demanded by CPAM. I have assumed that CPAM is administered country wide with no regional variations. Maybe I should visit them here in Carcassonne and see for myself what they need before splashing out on anything. But for us, yes, the bare minimum will do.