My Carte Vitale

I am now the proud owner of a Carte Vitale – a little green plastic card with my picture on it that gives me free health care in France.

Since I went to the social security office in July I have had a piece of paper with a temporary social security number, but this now the real deal.

All French people have a Carte Vitale and – when plugged into a card reader at a hospital, pharmacy or clinic – it gives information about how much the card holder has to pay towards their care.

For most people the Carte Vitale pays 70% of health care costs with the additional 30% paid by a mutuelle – an insurance policy usually paid by the person’s employer.

However, for people with long-term health conditions (affections de longue durée), the Carte Vitale pays 100% of all health care, apart from a few pharmacy items – a list that the government here is trying to lengthen.

I managed to get a Carte Vitale with 100% cover because I was able to get a form E121 from the Pensions Service in the UK. This isn’t always an easy process, but I knew that I needed it in order to be able to live in France for a year.

The European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) scheme may have been sufficient if my Crohn’s was much more stable and I didn’t need regular hospital admissions for my Infliximab treatment.

Although, having said that, my partner Becky is having some problems getting the correct EHIC card – there is one for holidays and one for longer stays.

So far, my health has been quite stable. Even so, I have been to see a médecin généraliste (GP) twice, a gastroenterologist once and I have had one trip to the university hospital for Infliximab and one blood test.

This week I need to have a Vitamin B12 injection, plus another blood test and then have another Infliximab infusion in two weeks’ time. And I am having ongoing treatment for a dental infection at the dentists (paid for by the Carte Vitale).

To be able to hand over my Carte Vitale each time does make life much easier and cheaper than having to pay and then claim back 70% of costs via the EHIC office in the UK. It will be interesting to see how this works if Becky needs to use her EHIC card while we are here.