EU reviews foreign healthcare ban

CAMPAIGNERS who fought against France’s decision to throw early-retiree expats out of the state health system in 2007 have welcomed news that the country is being forced to review its policies.

France decided in late 2007 that early-retirees from other EU states who had not worked in France would have to leave the system and get private health insurance, informing them that their carte vitales would no longer work. This included those in the midst of treatment for life-threatening illnesses and sufferers of long-term illnesses who were unable to find private cover.

The decision was eventually overturned but arrivals in France since November 2007 have been forced to seek private cover once their temporary E106 forms run out, until they have lived in the country for five years.

The European Commission is questioning this law which prevents people who are unable to get full private health cover, such as those with pre-existing medical conditions, from living in France.
A commission spokesman said the policy may clash with recent EU rules on compatibility between states’ social security systems.

Discussions are under way to see if it is possible to allow early retirees to pay for state cover under the CMU system, as they did before the law changed.

A member of the French Health Issues campaign, Dorothy Askew from the Charente, 57, said the decision to end cover came after husband Keith, 60, a retired policeman, was recovering from nine operations for colon cancer, and was “very stressful.”

“We couldn’t move him back to England and we were going to be cut off - our E106s were due to run out in January 2008,” she said.

Only his French surgeon was qualified to understand the complex procedures from which he was suffering side effects. “We couldn’t get private cover and we were left with no option but to fight,” she added. Mrs Askew said her husband was let back into the CMU and has made a good recovery.

She said the EU probe was good news.

“We have a lot of retired friends that have come over and can’t get full private cover so are thinking they need to go back to the UK or try to find work in France.” She said they now pay 8% of income for state health cover plus about e90 a month in top-up insurance.

“One of the myths is that expats were coming and getting healthcare free,” she said.

Technically, some of those unable to get full private healthcare when their E106s expire can appeal to join the state system based on “life accident” rules – unforeseen difficulties in accessing healthcare. However, in practice, this can prove difficult.