Blackswanwood
Still Learning
Sorry to keep asking but why do you need health insurance as opposed to relying on the S1 form mentioned previously? (I’m genuinely trying to understand as I was surprised S1 forms exist - it sounds quite generous)
If you're thinking of emigrating to Europe and you're not so young think again perhaps
- Thread starter woodieallen
- Start date
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Me too - I'd not heard of them til you mentioned it.
Once you have residency you have full access to their health system. You don’t need health insurance.
Yeah, Sunny Beach doesn't need vouchers anymore, but it's still a place where you wouldn't catch me dead.
I doubt you went skiing in Sunny Beach - more likely Bansko or Pamporovo. Both of those are very upmarket resorts now, and pretty pricy to boot. There are still homeless "clochards" (Bulgarian has a lot of loan words from German and French) about, but they're mainly so by choice, in the sense that they drink every stotinka they can get their hands on. When I first arrived here, 20+ years ago, I used to feel sorry for them, especially in the winter, and buy food for them, but they soon informed me that what they wanted came in a bottle, not a styrofoam take-away container. So I started feeding the homeless cats and dogs instead..
Sunny Beach is still mostly owned by the mafia, but they're more civilised now and gangland executions, like homeless people, are more common in the UK than here.
John Brown
Freeloading Social media influenza
Sorry, that was unintentionally ambiguous. I went skiing in Bulgaria, can't remember the name of the resort off hand, but it wasn't that far from Sofia.
Borovets, just looked it up.
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woodieallen
Established Member
No, but it is five years. 12 x 600 x 5 x 2 = £72000
woodieallen
Established Member
You've not read the small print
woodieallen
Established Member
Yeah...but you have to provide your own health insurance for 5 years.
Sorry ...double post
woodieallen
Established Member
You're confused. My point is that you have to fund health insurance for five years. OK...assume that is done. So now I get residency. No (or not much) health insurance needed. Still not contributing much to the French economy yet I still get health cover on the State (more or less). So your line of reasoning at that point falls flat on its face.
I might be wrong, but you achieve temporary residency initially which gives you access to health care, residency taxes etc. To become a permanent resident your right about the five years.
Blackswanwood
Still Learning
Sorry but I must be missing something.
According to this link and the gov website a valid S1 is accepted as evidence of medical coverage and no further insurance is needed.
The reason I am asking is that my sister is planning on going down this route and she also was unaware than insurance is needed. Can you point me to anything that explains it better please?
https://www.french-property.com/gui...ng new instructions on the,visa, up to 1 year.
And don't forget that prior to getting a residency visa in most of the EU the Schengen agreement applies so you can only stay for ninety days in any one eighty.
The S1 will cover you for treatment, but not for Pharmacuticals.
The S1 will cover you for treatment, but not for Pharmacuticals.
woodieallen
Established Member
Reading through the information on getting an S1 shows the use of ‘may’ in many places. Not ‘will’. Which suggests it’s not a given. But it is encouraging I’ll grant you. Still a requirement for some interim health insurance cover in the early months while an S1 is processed in the ‘new’ country .
Why "masterclass" - it's hardly a difficult undertaking, is it??
Bulgaria is far from the most efficient EU states when it comes to processing UK documents, but it takes just a few days to register an S1 and become part of the health service here. GPs who speak English are fairly common here - I imagine that Bulgarian-speaking GPs are something of a rarity in the UK....
It takes quite a time to get the S1 in the first place when you live abroad, though.
Blackswanwood
Still Learning
Thanks.
The use of “may” seems to be highlighting that the local healthcare may not include the same care that is available from the NHS as opposed to calling into question that local healthcare can be accessed.
You can apply for an S1 90 days before relocating and register it online in many countries. Even if the S1 has not been acknowledged as registered and healthcare is needed you can pay for it yourself and the NHS will refund you. Details of how to do this are provided with the S1. Clearly that could present a cash flow issue and attitudes to risk differ but insurance is not an absolute requirement.
Sorry (again) to be pedantic about this but your initial post could dispel someone’s dream to the dustbin when it’s a far less onerous matter to navigate than originally suggested.
Well. those look like "simplistic throwaway remarks" to me! I was a student in Paris in 1968-70, and lived in several regions of the country in the 90s and again in the early 2000s. While it was, and is, a very bureaucratic country, I certainly wouldn't characterise it as expensive or backward - and if you mean in comparison to the UK, then I'd regard that as frankly laughable.
selectortone
Still waking up not dead in the morning
Some classic internet misinformation going on on this thread. We need someone who actually moved to France and has taken advantage of the S1 form to chip on here.
The reason for additional insurance is that, as in the UK, the state-supplied healthcare is often inferior to what's on offer from private doctors/hospitals and additionally often involves a long wait. The S1 covers only the same healthcare as citizens of the country in question receive; in addition, as previously mentioned, drugs aren't covered and can be very expensive.
All that said, here in BG I can make an appointment online to see my GP - usually the same day or the following one. Likewise, I can make an online appointment to see any specialist of my choosing (they're even rated by patients à la Tripadvisor
) although that would be a private appointment, which is anyway pretty cheap by UK standards; if I'm referred by my GP the appointment is free or at minimal cost.
