About the great French healthcare system

[Dutchman working in France]

Some factual information about the French healthcare system, from someone who lives and works in France, but is _not_ French (Note: in writing this I have used some articles from a site called www.angloinfo.fr).
French health insurance (sécurité sociale) is available to everyone resident in France: French national or foreigner and whether salaried, working as an independent artisan or professional, unemployed or retired.

Social Security (Health Insurance)
All resident in France are obliged by law to join the state health system. In local terms, this means affiliating to the CPAM :Caisse Primaire d'Assurance Maladie. There are penalties for residents who do not join, although such penalties have yet to be enforced.

The Basic System of Social Security
Like other countries, France uses taxation to fund health care for residents but unlike Britain for example, France operates an insurance system. This is a mixed system with the bulk of cover coming from State assurance, and top-up cover coming from mutuelles or private health care insurance companies. All medical facilities are part of the State system but the patient is free to choose their own doctors, specialists, medical facility or hospital.

What Social Security Provides
The Social Security decrees that on average 70 percent of the cost of medical treatment will be reimbursed but the exact figure received depends on:
the treatment needed and its costs and the income of the patient
It is the interaction of these two factors that determines the specific level of CPAM repayment:

1. The agreed price of the treatment is set by the Ministry of Health and known as Tarif de Convention. Repayments range from below 60 percent of this amount to full repayment of 100 percent. 100% is the level for: major surgery, major diseases such as cancer, disability and other long term care

2. The income levels of a person and their family. There are taxable income levels below which 100 percent of the Tarif de Convention is reimbursed, based on the status as a single person/couple/couple with dependants. .

For people above the minimum income levels, the contribution (cotisation) is eight percent of the difference between the appropriate family threshold level and taxable income - . CPAM makes these calculations.

-The above is for persons with income, for persons with no income there is:
Couverture Maladie Universelle, CMU (universal illness cover) it provides two slightly different state insurances:
CMU de base (basic cover)
CMU complémentaire (complimentary top-up cover)
CMU de base is obligatory to residents of France who do not qualify for any other obligatory health insurance. CMU complémentaire is complementary protection (comparable with a mutual insurance) granted based on the insured person's financial resources.
Basic CMU is available to any person who has lived in France for more than three months in a regular and stable way, is not employed and does not benefit from insurance from another country. It is allocated for those with little or no income (there is a fixed ceiling).
Basic CMU refunds care and drugs at much the same rates as other state insurance with between 35 and 65 percent refund on medication and 60 to 100 percent for medical services and operations.
CMU complémentaire has all the advantages of a complementary protection and provides 100 percent cover and exemption from any payments.

Top-Up Insurance (Mutuelle) for Social Security
CPAM repays only a percentage of medical costs and also excludes ambulance costs, the cost of a stay in hospital, and the use of a private room. In addition modern dental and optical treatments are often very much higher than the Tarif de Convention.

Private health insurance (santé complémentaire) is available from any medical insurer. Rates vary depending on the degree of cover required and status of the applicant. Policies may range from 100 to 200 percent of the Tarif de Convention.

From personal experience, having lived and worked in the Netherlands, in the USA and in France, I can say: the French health care system is the best, by far.

[PDiddy]

It's sad that the USA is the only industrialized nation on Earth without healthcare for all.

[LBP]

equally sad that people in the US are losing their jobs or going into to huge debt even after paying for insurance because insurance companies wont pay for medially necessary surgeries.