SOCIAL SECURITY

If you are a legal resident and are employed by a company in France, you and your family will be entitled to full coverage under the French social security system, the Sécurité Sociale.

When you begin working for a French company, your employer is responsible for providing you with a social security number. You will then be eligible for reimbursements of medical fees.

The first step is to register with your local health insurance centre (Caisse nationale d'assurance maladie, or CNAM), which can be found via the search tool on the website of the public health insurance fund, the Assurance Maladie. You will then be issued with a certificate of entitlement (attestation) and your health insurance card (carte Vitale).

If you are self-employed (travailleur indépendent), you will be covered by a separate social security organisation that also provides public health insurance (Régime Sociale des Indépendants or RSI). To be eligible for coverage, you should register with your local branch.

Around 20% of your gross monthly salary will be automatically deducted to fund your French social security and other obligatory schemes.

The Assurance Maladie generally reimburses around 70% of medical fees. It also gives you the right to paid sick leave and emergency hospital treatment, which is partially reimbursed regardless of your level of health insurance coverage.

Many people take out complementary health insurance with one of a large number of private schemes (mutuelles) that cover the remainder of the cost of treatment.

To learn more, read our reimbursement of medical fees page, or visit the Assurance Maladie website (in French).

If you are a citizen of the European Union, the European Economic Area countries or Switzerland and are visiting France, you can get temporary access to the French Healthcare system by obtaining a European Healthcare Insurance Card.