A few people have asked me how we have got on with health care here in France, so here is my experience so far with my understanding of how things work…
To come to France, you should have adequate health insurance. For applying for a residence permit of more than 3 months, your insurance should include comprehensive cover including repatriation. After 3 months of living in France, you can apply to join the public health system – Protection Universelle Maladie (PUMA), but I had read that it can take time to process applications, so we decided to buy private health insurance for a whole year. It was expensive, but it gave us the flexibility we needed and the ability to cancel quarter by quarter.
After arriving in France, I tried to register with a doctor in Eymet, but there were already too many people on their books for the resident doctors, but I was told that if I need an appointment I was to call and they would fit in me when they could, but I couldn’t be assigned a GP.
I made my first appointment because I wanted to run in a local race. In France, for nearly all sporting activities, you need a medical certificate from a doctor saying you are fit to take part. The doctor I saw was very friendly, he asked me questions about my health, measured my weight, height and blood pressure, he examined my body and listened to my breathing. Finally, he gave me a full EKG. Everything was fine so I had the certificate I needed – valid for a year. I’d hoped my expensive private health insurance would pay for the appointment with the doctor (€40) so I scanned the invoice and sent it to them with a claim form. My claim was rejected because I arrived in France less than three months ago 🙁
After living here for 90 days, I filled out the forms to join PUMA with all the necessary documentation (of which there was a lot of course) and popped it all into the letterbox of the CPAM office in Bergerac. Two months later I received my social security number and my Carte Vitale so I happily cancelled my private health insurance. I did, however, take out a ‘mutuelle’ to top-up the public health cover.
A couple of months ago I heard there was a new doctor in town, so I have now registered with him, and I have since used my Carte Vitale + Carte Mutuelle to pay for appointments and prescriptions.
After breaking a pair of glasses, I wanted to buy a new pair, but that was not possible to do here without a prescription from a French ophthalmologist, so I made an appointment with one in Miramont-de-Guyenne. She tested my eyesight and gave me a prescription. I then visited the optician in Eymet to order new glasses. The Carte Vitale + Mutuelle paid for the sight test and significantly reduce the cost of the glasses leaving me to pay the balance.
All in all, the healthcare system seems to me be well set up, easily accessible and affordable once you are ‘in the system’, which like a lot of things here, takes time and paperwork.
Back at the B&B we’ve had a houseful this weekend and we’ve had a heatwave. With temperatures over 40C during the afternoons there were bound to be some uncomfortable nights, but we’ve learnt that by keeping shutters and windows closed during the day the house stays reasonably cool. The swimming pool has been great! We turned two rooms this morning so the washing machines are whirring away now and I’m ready for une sieste.