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Health Insurance in France

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ylutes

My wife and I will be relocating to France in the next 2 years and are starting to look in to health insurance options for U.S. expats living in France.  I've reached out to Cigna for some pricing, but would welcome peoples experience/recommendations for this.

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The healthcare system for foreign retirees in FranceThe healthcare system in FranceHealth insurance for 70+US Medicare and French Protection universelle maladiePreventive care in France
Guest1230789

Hi ylutes,
If you mean health insurance in order to get your visas, you have to get one that repatriates you; travel insurance will do this (see world nomads), but is usually only good for one year.
The good news is that once you have been in a stable residency situation in France for three months, you can apply to join/use the national health coverage. I wrote a couple of posts about our experience:
slowtravelin.blogspot.fr/2017/05/health-coverage-in-france.html
slowtravelin.blogspot.fr/2017/06/health-coverage-in-france-part-2.html
BTW - don't count on the same timeframes; I have heard of others who took a long time to get their cartes vitales

ylutes

Thanks JulieH.   We are looking for any help we can get in navigating through the health insurance process.   My wife and I will both be retired when we make the move, so I don't know if that impacts the process.    It's my understanding that I will need to get a 1 year visa that gets renewed on an annual basis.  My wife carries a British Passport (with a U.S. Green Card, although she is working on getting dual citizenship - a U.S. Passport-to make it easier to come back to the U.S. to visit friends and family), so we are not sure how that will affect this process, although we are hearing that, since she has been a resident of the U.S for so long, she may not have the same advantages as others with E.U. passports.  It sounds like what you are saying is that we need to have our Visas in place first, before we apply for health insurance?  I guess I then don't quite follow why there are these companies like Cigna and Aetna that offer international health insurance.

Guest1230789

If your wife is British, I urge you to look at the Visa requirements for a spouse of an EU citizen - it's much easier for you to get a visa this way.
As far as health insurance, companies are in the business...

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