Changes for dependents in France

‘Inactive’ members of a couple will no longer be ayant droits (dependents) of their partner and their reimbursements will be calculated and paid individually. How­ever unless they request otherwise, people who had the status of a dependent at the start of 2016 will maintain it until the end of 2019.

Ayant droit status applied for example to non-working (and not yet of state pension age) spouses of people in the French health system.

The change is based on the assumption that every person permanently and legally resident in France is entitled to healthcare – however nothing has explicitly changed for early retiree expats in this respect (in theory, depending on certain conditions, they still need private health insurance for five years).

As before, ‘inactive’ couples allowed into the system may have to pay an annual cotisation at 8% of income above a designated threshold. However with individual accounts each would pay their own using a calculation based on either half of household income or a real division of what income relates to whom.