Healthcare in France: an introduction
Many people who move to France are pleasantly surprised by high-quality and affordable healthcare
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Healthcare is a topic that matters to everyone, and if you have moved to France or visit regularly it is important to understand the country’s health system so you know what you are (and are not) covered for and how it works.
This guide gives a wide-ranging explanation of healthcare in France and is aimed both at those who are new to the subject and those who want to understand it in more depth.
France is justifiably proud of its good healthcare, which keeps the country consistently near the top of global tables for life expectancy. The WHO (based on 2021 figures) reports this being 79.1 for men and 84.7 for women. The number of ‘healthy’ years is also growing, with the WHO giving this as 69.1 for men and 71 for women.
Many people moving over are pleasantly surprised by high-quality and affordable care and the wide range of state-funded services, such as a stay at a thermal spa.
The system also continues to keep up with the times, with fully-reimbursed video-consultations widely available. Everyone in the French system is given a secure online space where they can share medical documents with health professionals and exchange online messages with them.
One notable difference compared to, for example, healthcare in the UK, is that some medical consultations and treatments must be paid for upfront and then be refunded.
However this has progressively been reduced, and where it still exists most people can arrange reimbursements with the swipe of their carte Vitale card, and no paperwork.
A digital version of this card on a phone app has been progressively rolled out with a view to being available everywhere in the course of 2025. Reforms have helped plug certain gaps where state cover was previously patchy, such as in the funding of glasses, hearing aids and dental prostheses.
These can now in many cases now be funded completely by a combination of state funding and a mutuelle ‘top-up’ policy, which most people in France take out.
Other reforms have for example brought in free in-depth preventative health checks at age 18-25, 45-50, 60-65 and 70-75.
Among current priorities are increasing the number of multi-disciplinary healthcare clinics and further increasing new ways of ‘taking healthcare to the people,’ particularly in rural areas via ideas such as medical buses and more use of telemedicine to offer consultations and monitoring over the internet.
Improving mental health by improving access to psychologists is another.
This guide also covers how Brexit affected the healthcare of Britons in France, as it is a topic The Connexion often receives queries about. The positive aspect is that the Brexit deals retained certain key advantages which help both holidaymakers and second-home owners and some categories of Britons moving to France.
As rules and regulations do change, we recommend checking our website for updates at connexionfrance.com.
The Connexion team