• Please Remember: Members are only permitted to share their own experiences. Members are not qualified to give medical advice. Additionally, everyone manages their health differently. Please be respectful of other people's opinions about their own diabetes management.
  • We seem to be having technical difficulties with new user accounts. If you are trying to register please check your Spam or Junk folder for your confirmation email. If you still haven't received a confirmation email, please reach out to our support inbox: support.forum@diabetes.org.uk

Type 1 relocating to France

Status
This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
S

Smiler3

New Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
This is my first post (I'll post in Newbies in a minute) so hello everyone!

I've had a search on the forum and couldn't see this being covered already, so I wondered if anyone here has experience of being a Type 1 and moving to France? I'll be (early) retiring at age 55, and won't be looking to work in France - I'll have enough of a pension from my employment to keep me going.

However ... how does it work in regard to insulin? I've had a look on the NHS sites and it seems to be saying that, as I'm not in receipt of any UK benefits at all, I won't be covered in France. That's fine, I won't be contributing to their country so am not expecting to get anything for nothing, but just how do I get insulin? And how much (roughly) does it cost?

Is anyone here in the same position? I'll also post on an expat forum but thought I'd try here first. Thanks in advance, Smiler.
 
Hello Smiler3, welcome to the forum. I thought the EU deal was, that you were entitled to the same benefits as a citizen of the country you are in, hence having the EHIC card when you go on holiday, ie, whatever a French person is entitled to have, and it is probably a different system to the Uk, that is what you are entitled to also.
 
Hi Robin, thank you for the welcome and the reply.

Unfortunately not though, the rules are very different now for residents (especially early retirees) as opposed to holidaymakers.

If we were in receipt of ANY exportable UK-based benefits then we should be able to access the French healthcare system and have it paid for by the UK (which I don't really want, as I don't think that's fair either!) but as we don't have any UK state benefits or pension, then we're not covered.

I accept that we'd have to pay, but it's not easy to find out how much and whether or not some sort of insurance would cover us. Hmm, it's a tricky one right enough, I've been trying to find a definitive answer for a while now.

Thanks again, Smiler
 
Last edited:
A member here HelenM lives in France. Unfortunately, she last posted in December 2014. However searching through previous posts may offer some useful snippets as Helen was always very good at describing how things worked over there.
 
Thank you both so much for your replies. Deus, that must be the only website I hadn't found yet, so thanks, that's brilliant! I'll also have a look for HelenM's posts too, thanks again to both of you. 🙂
 
Any Updates

Hi Smiler3,

I am in EXACTLY the same situation as you and finding it difficult to get any form of definitive answers to the same initial question of yours !

Have you had any joy in your search for an answer ?
 
Status
This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
Back
Top