We live in France and are covered by the state health system CPAM which works really well, although we are retired, so the circumstances might be slightly different for you.

You should obtain a "Carte Vitale" for the members of your family and with this you can go to the doctor or specialist who places this Carte into a little machine, which then reimburses you through the system directly into your bank account. When my OH was afflicted with a very serious illness [you know what I mean] the state paid 100% and we are talking serious money here! No real need to pay double if you do not have to.

I sincerely hope I am giving you the right information here but basically I think so.

If you need more help, just send a PM we will do our best to assist.

Thanks for your reply and advice (and I hope your husband is doing well now).

I think our situation may be different as my husband is classed as a ‘frontalier’ and we are not contributing directly to the French social security system. We have had to send our Swiss health insurance info and form E106(I think) to CPAM and are awaiting our Carte Vitale. Basically I understand that the Swiss health insurance company will reimburse CPAM for our medical costs. Unfortunately my French is not great (yet!) so I can’t really make the necessary enquiries with CPAM re the VHI / BUPA option - hence replying on the good folk here for advice!  

Perhaps I should have thought to mention in the above posting that as long as you have paid regularly into an EU country's social security/medical system [we were in Belgium for 15 years before coming to France], then you are entitled to your Carte Vitale. In our case like it or not, the Belgians have to reimburse the French for our medical care. Hopefully this clarifies, and does not muddy the waters further! And yes thank you my OH is doing well now D.G.

Good luck

Sheila

Ah that's very interesting. Didn't realise that social security contributions made elsewhere in the EU 'counted' here. I'll definately look into that further.

While we're happy to pay private health insurance if that's what we need to do (and have done all our lives!) it really pains me to pay the €1000+ per month for the basic cover we have via the Swiss company. I understand my husband needs the Swiss cover, but the rest of us could get excellent private cover via Irish scheme for ~200 per month. Big difference. Of course if we could get public cover here in France then all the better! Thanks very much for your help.

Bupa do not necessarily know the rules.  When I cam here I managed to kepp my PPP UK private policy going for two years but then the Swiss found out and told me in no uncertian terms that I had to change.  äThere was no penalty but since then I have been with a _Swiss insurer

I am different in that I live in Switzerland and am not a fontalier

Thanks for your reply. I agree that VHI/BUPA do not know the requirements for specific areas and the whole 'frontalier' thing makes it more complicated. I've made an enquiry with the Swiss Assurance-Maladie office and will post back if / when I get a response.