Do we really need top-up insurance?
Costs are rising, incomes are dropping, so can we dispense with top-up and rely on basic state cover?
Larry Fulton of Exclusive Healthcare responds:
It is compulsory to have proper health insurance if you are legally resident in France. However, your affiliation to the French health service via the CMU is sufficient to satisfy this requirement. It is not compulsory, at the moment, to have complementary top-up insurance as well. I have qualified this statement because, with the reductions in the cover provided by the French health service and more being planned, I think it may be made compulsory in the future.
Nevertheless, a high percentage of the French population has top-up insurance, which speaks for itself. Moreover, some four million with incomes below a certain defined level, have free top-up cover (CMUC) as well as free basic cover (CMUB). I do not think this concession would be made unless the government considered it to be necessary.
The French health service is not free. It reimburses around 60-70% of the cost of treatment but there are certain situations in which the shortfall can be serious.
The state pays hospital costs only up to 80% of the Tarif de Convention (an agreed list of medical costs) where the illness is not long-term, one of the 30 listed diseases or a major operation is not involved. This limitation can result in a costly shortfall of some thousand or more euros that patients have to pay themselves.
The risk without reasonable top-up insurance is unacceptable and I strongly advise you to cover yourselves properly. I know that incomes have been seriously affected by the present turmoil in the financial world but €25 a month for someone in their fifties is not a high price to pay for such health protection.
