Can UK travellers get French health insurance?

Reader Question: Is it possible to get a mutuelle insurance to supplement our GHIC cards, as we are being quoted £1,200 for holiday insurance? All we need is health cover.

 The simple answer is no. 

The French complementary health insurance system, commonly known as mutuelle, is only available to people within the French system. 

This means you must be affiliated to one of the four principal social security regimes in the country, the main one of which is CPAM (Caisse primaire d’assurance maladie). 

A French social security number is required for all complementary health insurance applications, and as a holidaymaker you will not have one.

Cover provided by the GHIC card is comprehensive and equivalent to the costs covered by the French system when used by French people.

Ghic cards in France

The UK government’s foreign travel advice lists matters which will not be covered as: changes to travel and accommodation bookings, additional standard costs to treatment, medical repatriation to the UK, non-urgent treatment, private healthcare and private clinics. 

This means that a typical doctor’s consultation, which now costs €30, will be repaid 70% by the GHIC card, leaving you €9 out of pocket – still much cheaper than buying additional health insurance.

Subsidised medicine

Similarly, most prescribed medicines in France, including paracetamol or aspirin, are subsidised – from 75% to 30%, depending on the medicine. The subsidised part will be repaid by the GHIC card.

Keep the receipt, sometimes printed on the back of the original prescription and returned to you.

The big fear is that a serious illness or accident requires repatriation to the UK. The Connexion previously reported a case in which travel insurance refused to pay out the €20,000-€40,000 bill for a teenager who had a stroke in Paris and had to be driven home in an ambulance.

You might find your credit or debit card already covers this eventuality, especially if it is a “gold” card and you used it to book all or part of the holiday.

In any case, it should not be too difficult to find a health insurance-only policy – people from outside the EU, including countries such as the US, Japan, and South Korea, need insurance policies covering at least €30,000 of medical costs to visit, and prices are reasonable because there is lots of competition. So, €5 a day is typical.