3. Couverture Maladie Universelle (CMU)

1. 3.1. Contribution Level into CMU
   3.2. Application Process into CMU
   3.3. Free Health Insurance (CMU-C)
   3.4. Assistance with Voluntary Insurance

3.2. Application Process for Couverture Maladie Universelle (CMU)

In order to obtain health cover through the CMU you need to register with your local health insurance fund, the Caisse Primaire d’Assurance Maladie (CPAM) who have a large number of offices throughout each region. The local office will be found in the telephone directory, or ask at your mairie.

You will need to produce your passport and proof of residence, e.g. electricity and telephone bills. You will also need to supply your French bank account details as reimbursements will be paid directly into your account.

If you are claiming on grounds of 5 years residence, then you will to be required to produce evidence of 5 years residence, probably best evinced by obtaining a residence permit from your préfecture.

If you are seeking admission on medical grounds, or other 'accident of life', then you will similarly need to produce appropriate evidence. In particular, those seeking admission on medical grounds will need to produce evidence of a refusal of private health insurance.

Processing of your application may take up to three months and, until you are issued with a plastic health insurance card (carte vitale), you will be provided with a formal notice (attestation), which you will need to use to pay and then reclaim each time you use the health service.

When your carte vitale arrives it will also include with it a new attestation that you are in the health system. This formal notice is sometimes required to be presented when you need hospital or specialist treatment, so it is useful to keep both available at all times.

If you consider your application is not being processed with due alacrity (notably if there is no news within three weeks), then you are entitled to invoke a conciliation procedure, which you can do by writing to the Conciliateur at the CPAM.

If you do get a decision, and it is a negative one, then you are entitled to write to the appeal body of the CPAM, called the Commission de recours amiable (CRA). These appeal bodies are quite interesting, for they include lay assessors on them, and so are not necessarily dominated by an official mind-set.