Health Service Changes

This month, Isabelle Want's newsletter reviewed some of the changes being introduced over the next couple of years. The gist of which is, as President Macron might say, "100% signifie 100%"!

Yes, as you know, even if you have top-up health insurance, until now you are rarely covered for 100% of your costs. But the new regulations being introduced over the next couple of years (to be finished by the end of 2021) mean that you can expect your insurance to cover 100% of your costs unless you opt for some additional extras.  Here are a few examples:

Dental work

There will be a general cap on dental charges i.e. the maximum that can be charged, currently set at 530€ (this will reduce to 500€ in 2020). There are some limits on the quality of treatment you receive without extra charges e.g. molars will be filled with amalgam not ceramic.
And by 2020, this whole charge will be covered by your top-up insurance.

Opticians

Similarly for glasses, your top-up insurance will cover 100% of the cost of new lenses and frames. Of course, if you want the latest Gucci-style, you can pay extra for that. Also, eye-tests should not cost more than 10€.

Hearing aids

For hearing-aids, a cap on charges has already been introduced at 1300€ and this is reducing to 950€ by 2021. If you have top-up insurance, come 2021, it will cover 100% of these charges. Of course this will not cover the latest, super advanced equipment; you can pay extra for that.

General

And there are new regulations in how these agencies can quote for work to be done. Professionals are obliged to give you more than one quotation for their work and at least one of these estimates must be at a level that can be reimbursed at 100%.

Good news for everyone! 👍

Isabelle Want works in the Allianz agency in Ruffec; she publishes regular articles in both Etcetera and Living. She also maintains a very helpful page where you can subscribe to her monthly newsletter, read past newsletters and view various articles on living in France