lambchops

Hi everyone, I am a newbie to this part of the forum and I wondered if anyone had any knowledge of the position in terms of Healthcare in France. My husband and I (both early retirees 50 & 59) who are both UK citizens planning to move to France post Brexit . Although we are both UK citizens, my husband qualifies for Irish citizenship through foreign birth by descent but is there an issue if my husband has no income as an EU Citizen (will have substantial savings) and our only source of regular income is from the non-EU Citizen.

I have searched the internet thoroughly (French / Irish / EU sites) but cannot find a definitive answer. I understand as the spouse of an EU Citizen, I am allowed to reside in France with my husband but would my husband need to register as seeking work in order to be covered by the French HealthCare system and would I be covered and if not, I am assuming I would need to have my own private healthcare?

Thanks in advance
Lambs

EuroTrash

You don't have to be working to access healthcare. Once you've resided legally in France for 3 months as a self supporting inactive you qualify for exactly the same healthcare as workers.
I see what you're wondering but I don't think it would be an issue although couldn't say for definite.
If your spouse is an EU citizen and your household resources are adequate, I would think he would be classed as residing legally. You'd pay your healthcare contributions based on total household income.

cyrian

Hi Lambs,
Welcome to the France section.
I agree with ET.
Your OH's rights as an EU citizen do not depend on income but the ability to support yourself.
Renting a house depends on income and not cash in the bank.

In France, you are taxed per household and not per individual.
Therefore your income would be your family income which probably means that you would pay very little or no tax at all.
I am assuming that your income is not a Government pension (as distinct from a State Pension).
The right to be covered by healthcare is also an individual one but if your OH is not a burden on France then I don't see a problem.

I also have the right to claim Irish citizenship by descent but I will only go down that route if there is a really pressing reason.
I am not resident in France.
Hopefully, sense will prevail (fat chance?) and the UK and the EU will recognise one another's citizens from 2021.

I suggest that should you decide to proceed then you should rent a home initially to assess a permanent move.
Houses in France do not usually sell fast in France and can sometimes take several years.
There is no need to rush in to a house purchase.

There are lots of other questions you need to ask before you proceed.
Please read the FAQs at the top of the page.

EuroTrash

Coming back to this - I still think it will be fine.
You'll be in a strangely interdependent situation because your right to a CdS will depend on his status as an EU citizen, and his correctly exercising FoM as a self supporting EU citizen will depend on your income. But between you, you have all the pieces of the jigsaw, you just need to fit them together.

lambchops

Hi- tx for the feedback. What are the acronyms? 🌝

EuroTrash

Sorry.
CdS = Carte de séjour = residence permit
FoM = Freedom of Movement, as per the EU Freedom of Movement Directive
You probably know EU :-)

Listen Very Carefully

Try not to think about the French Health system in the same terms as the NHS The french health system is a stand alone system and qualifying for it does not depend on working or looking for work The official website for the French health system is www.ameli.fr If it is helpful there is an English speaking helpline for CPAM 0033 811 70 36 46 This is a premium rate number but the operators are helpful

scrubbedexpat056

Your situation (brexit notwithstanding) is similar to ours. Early retirees (called inactif in France), we are UK citizens, in our early sixties, married and I also have an Irish passport. Our joint income comes from rented property in UK. I mentioned this in another post, but to repeat it, as soon as you come to live in France as inactif you are no longer entitled to an S1, the UK card that guarantees reciprocal health rights for pensioners. Our experience has been that until you have lived in France for three months and have proved your entitlement to join the french healthcare system, you will essentially not be covered for healthcare anywhere, hence the need for private medical insurance for that period. It is not a prerequisite for joining the healthcare system here, but it would be courageous not to have any.
You must have a minimum income to live here as inactif and healthcare will cost you 8% of that income. Savings are not included in this minimum except for interest going towards you total income (I believe). On top of that most people take out a top up medical insurance called a mutuelle which aims to make up for the 30% of your medical bills that the government don't cover. It's a little more complicated than that, but you get the picture.
You say your husband qualifies for Irish citizenship by descent, again like me, though I assume you don't mean citizenship as such, but the right to have his birth registered in Ireland and then the right to apply for an Irish passport. This is what I did and it took 11 months because of the backlog created by the furious demand for EU passports from Northern Ireland and abroad. I would suggest you get onto registering his birth asap unless you have done so already.
Good luck with it all. It's a lot of faff and jumping through hoops, but well worth it in my opinion.

Moses2013

I live in Ireland and as you say, there is a huge backlog. One also has to note that the following applies, otherwise Ireland would be paying for millions who never contributed. https://europa.eu/youreurope/citizen...htm#shortcut-3In the EU, the country responsible for your social security and your health cover depends on your economic status and your place of residence – not your nationality. Make sure you understand which country's social security system should cover you. Find out more about social security cover abroad.

If you're unsure about your rights and want to check before you get treatment, contact a National Contact Point for healthcare. There's at least one in each EU country, and they can tell you whether you will be entitled to reimbursement, and if there are any reimbursement ceilings .

Healthcare in the country where you live

• If you receive a pension from the country where you live: you and your family are covered by that country's health insurance system — even if you are also receiving pensions from other countries.
• If you do not receive a pension or any other income from the country where you live: you and your family will receive medical treatment in the country where you live if you would be entitled to medical treatment in the country that pays your pension.

lambchops

Hi

Many thanks for all the info particularly the guidance on budgeting for the mutuelle, we have factored 10% of our total income but are shopping around 🌝.

Re Irish citizenship - "If you were born outside Ireland, you can become an Irish citizen if:

• One of your grandparents was born in Ireland"

This is is our situ and on reading the Irish immigration website, my husband would become an Irish citizen by registering his birth with the Foreign Births Register which we've been told could take up to a year then once he has citizenship he can apply for a passport.

We plan to travel around France in our m/home n Year 1 until we find a property to buy so will be taking out long term travel insurance to cover us and register his foreign birth before we leave the UK.

Once we have a property the rest should fall into place even with all the bureaucracy - ever the optimist...but there are so many good resources out there to help....including you nice folks 🌝

This will be our 2nd time emigrating to a different country and we had same bureaucracy and language challenges i.e. Greek!! At least my French is a whole lot better than my Greek 🌝

Lambs

scrubbedexpat056

Lambchops, I stand corrected on Irish citizenship being conferred by simply registering your birth there. I thought it was a lesser right like right to residency, but I'm happy for the citizenship along with my passport.
Again, your journey is similar to ours in that we lived on our boat in the canals while we house hunted and a dose of optimism never goes amiss. As to resources, this site has been the best by a long way and I have leaned on it heavily since before we arrived. I hope the fallout from brexit doesn't cause you too many problems.

lambchops

Hi

Living on a boat sounds wonderful. We are going to have a go at canal cruising this year - Canal du Midi so any tips / advice if you have them would be appreciated but I might spin up another thread on that and not hijack this thread 🌝

Lambs

scrubbedexpat056

Another thread would be a good idea or pm me, I don't believe many people on here have much experience of (or possibly interest in) the canals. We lived for 3 years on and off in the canals from Calais to the the bottom of the Rhone and then up the midi and lateral canals as far as Agen. Then much of 2018 again in the midi until we bought our house in Carcassonne in October.

BritInParis

On the Irish citizenship point, registering on the FBR gives you the same status as any other Irish citizen. You wouldn’t be entitled to an Irish passport if it didn’t. If you have yet to register then be mindful that the Irish authorities are quoting a minimum of 12-18 months to gain citizenship and then a passport.

lambchops

Thanks Brit in Paris - aware of the timescales...yikes!