Are we eligible for the CMU?

MY WIFE and I were refused entry to healthcare under the CMU a year ago on the grounds that “we should have moved to France with sufficient money to not be a burden on the state.” We had well under the annual qualifying income (our last tax submission showed our total income as a couple was under €7,000.) I retire and draw my state pension in September 2010. We will then have a combined income of about €14,000. We will, in January 2011, have lived here permanently for five years. In your opinion, do we qualify for the CMU?

You say you have not yet retired but we assume you mean you do not draw a state pension yet but no longer work.

Non-French people working and making social charges payments in France (including under the new auto-entrepreneur system for self-employment) should gain entitlement to use the French health service, along with their dependents (ayant droit).

The main function of the CMU (couverture maladie universelle) is to give healthcare rights to French people and others who have been living in France for at least three months in a stable, legal manner, who are not entitled to them through salaried work, self-employment or being a state pensioner.

It is free for those who have an income below certain thresholds (€9,020 per household). Above this you must contribute, at a rate of 8% of the difference between income and the ceiling.

The situation is different if you are an early-retiree ie. not working but not of state pension age. Until 2007 non-French people in this category were regularly moving to France, usually with a European E106 form allowing them a limited period of healthcare (up to two years) due to previous social security contributions in their country of origin, and then moving on to the CMU after the E106 expired.

In 2007 the rules changed. Early-retirees coming to live in France should ensure they are not a financial burden on the state and should arrange private healthcare. This requirement is now part of the test of whether EU citizens in France are deemed officially to be in stable, regular residence.

Such people can now only apply for the CMU under two conditions.

The first is if they suffer an accident de la vie, that is an unexpected event which lowers their income so they cannot afford private healthcare, examples include the death of a spouse, divorce, a sudden serious illness which private healthcare providers will not insure etc.

The second is they have been in France for five years (eg. with private health insurance) at which point they can apply at the service des étrangers at their prefecture for a permanent carte de séjour, with proof of their five years’ residence - they are then deemed to have acquired the permanent right to live in France and right to the CMU.

The sudden change in rules threatened the healthcare of many expats who found themselves abruptly booted out of the health system. After lobbying by groups - and The Connexion, the French government agreed that those who were permanently resident in France before November 23, 2007 and already in the CMU system at that time, would retain the right to use it. It was also agreed that those who had been in France with a valid E106 before that date could choose to either get private insurance or could move into the CMU.

The new rules were to be applied to anyone who moved to France after this cut off date.

You say you moved in 2006 but were refused the CMU in 2008. Assuming you were previously in France using the healthcare system with an E106, this suggests your health authority (cpam) may have been wrong.

See this official French-language question and answer page for more details on what was agreed http://tinyurl.com/cmufacts

We suggest you take the matter up with your cpam again. You can also apply to have the matter considered by the conciliateur (conciliator) attached to your Cpam, by writing to them care of your Cpam.

As a final resort, you will need private health insurance before applying to join the French health system once you are a state pensioner with an E121 form.