Good news on Health

Minister grants relief to all EU residents in France
24th January 2008


The British Embassy, Paris today announced that ALL early-retired inactive non-French Europeans who were legally resident in France on or before 23rd November 2007 will be allowed to stay in or join the CMU, including E106 holders.

A copy of the e-mail received from the Embassy is here.


FHI has just learnt that after months of negotiations between the health ministry and British Embassy staff, and lobbying from the expatriate community here, that the minister has finally agreed to simplify the rules, and has accepted that the legislation introduced late last year will not now be retrospective.
Over the coming hours and days, FHI will be interpreting and disseminating this new information and reviewing its impact on our future strategies.
We know that the period since 14th December, when the previous statement – which many CPAM staff refused to implement - was issued, has been extremely frustrating. However, we now believe that this was due to the fact that negotiations were ongoing and that their sensitive nature prevented an announcement from being made in the interim.
Now that such a change has been agreed we trust that all levels of CPAM staff will be properly briefed and that the outcome will be swift for all concerned. We ask those of you who have already been guaranteed cover until the end of March to be patient, in order to allow CPAM staff to deal with the immediate problems of those who have no health provisions, as we believe their situation is the most critical.
In the meantime, we would like to give our heartfelt thanks to all of you who have campaigned so hard over the past months. Your voice means something – this is a great victory for speaking up for you rights and fighting for justice.
We send our good wishes to all those who have suffered from the uncertainty which has prevailed recently, we hope that today’s news will be good for everybody’s health. To all those who may be ill, our thoughts are with you, and our hopes for a good and speedy recovery. At least now, you know you should get the treatment you deserve.