Hi! Ah fond memories of getting my carte vitale, but the JOY when it arrived at last!!
First it is really important so don't put it off. Take the form the doctor gave you to the Caisse Primaire Assurance Maladie nearest to you (ask at the Mairie of course, as everything.) You will need precise photos of your face denuded of glassess, fringe etc filling the space. lot of photo machines in France ask specifically if it is for a carte vitale. You will need a social security number for France. If neither of you is working, ask for them without delay - again at CPAM
(good advice to me was, go at 8 am to avoid queues)(take a French helper). Send everything off or take it in as soon as you can and filled in exactly correctly or they will send it back. Keep phoning or going in to check whether they have it. I'm not convinced this speeds them up but it made me feel better. You need one each. The children go on yours or his. Before you get your CV they will send an attestation. Do not lose this as you'll need it often for form filling. As soon as you have this, you can claim and get a mutuelle. Until you get your cv you will have to pay up front and claim, although my pharmacie accepted the attestation in lieu of the cv.
You will also need a mutuelle as soon as you can, mine is Prevadies who are super. This will provide complementary health care. The state only pays 35-75 % now and Sarkosi is reducing state support as we speak. 5 days after I got mine I was hospitalised and needed lots of injections and home nursing and god knows what, which would have cost me thousands of pounds. With the CV and mutuelle, it's all free.
my complementary includes full dental and optical stuff too. You will be able to calculate your own needs about this. You will need a French friend and go in to a shop don't try online, you need some friendly lady to help you.
Once you have your CV and Mutuelle, your life will be wonderful, you will have all tests and innoculations and so on, and will feel like royalty everywhere you go. I arrived in France in March, and it took 5 months to sort out. Good luck.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lizbeth
Hello...
My task is to try and suss out how to apply for our carte vitale. My partner (we aren't yet married so we do confusingly have different surnames) and I moved to France about 3 wks ago. I have two children from a previous marriage who are 5 and 7.
My partner works as a freelancer and has YET to sort out paying tax into the french system, but the plan is he will do this asap. He has most of his work from England but will pay tax into the french system once we've seen the accountant.
I have given up full time work and so am a stay at home Mum now and won't be working in France.
I've read LOADS of things from books to online info about applying for this and when we went to the local doctor here for the kids medical certificate enabling them to start school he gave us a form each (not the kids) to go and apply for our carte vitale with his GP stamp etc etc on it.
My question is - as I'm not working here, do me and the kids come under my partners carte vitale as dependents (given that we're not legally married) or do I have to get my own? If it's the latter, how can I do this given that I'm not earning etc etc.
Apologies for so many questions but this is a COMPLETE nightmare to sort out - plus our french I'm afraid is rusty 'A' level albeit we're working hard to get better!!!
Thanks
Lizbeth
|