What are the basic principles of the French health care system? How similar is it to single pay?
Despite being expensive to maintain – the deficit is currently round about 6 billion euros – and under constant funding pressure the French healthcare service is still one of the best in the world, offering a wide choice of general practitioners and healthcare specialists. For those who have experience of the health system in France and, for example, the UK, the contrast in standards can be startling. The French healthcare system is funded by the working population. French employees pay about 20 per cent of their gross salary – the self-employed pay even more – deducted at source, to fund the social security system, known as Sécurité sociale. A significant proportion of this money goes towards public healthcare, to which every legal resident of France has access under the law of universal coverage called la Couverture maladie universelle. *** In the past all EU expats arriving in France were eligible to join the French healthcare system. However now those arriving in France from 23 Nov
