Re: Wealthy Tax Avoiders.

Jonsey
To reclaim that 25% you can do one of two things, Either pay up and hope you don't land up in hospital, or you take out a 'TOP UP" insurance, ( ours costs us about 140 pounds a month for both of us), with that you get a "Carte Mutuelle", yet another card which you present to any medical administration, that is then entered on your medical papers and automatically paid, so you don't have pay at scource.

The only difference to that is if you visit a specialist, Doctors here do a quick analysis of what could be wrong with you and then point you in the direction of a specialist in that field, on arrival at the specialist clinic you will, after examanination be charged for the consultation, and that can range from 20 to 300 Euros,( rough guess) that is on top of what has been deducted via presentation of the "gren card", this will then be re-imbursed via your "top up" insurance at a later date.

Aerolor's reply
Could I just ask a little question Jonesy? Just as a matter of interest, (and I hope it doesn't happen) but what would be the situation if you did get quite ill and that illness involved a prolonged period of time and eventually left your health compromised. Given that an insurance policy covers the bulk of your healthcare needs (when it matters) what happens if the insurance company does not wish to insure you anymore, or your premiums increase so much that they become prohibitive.

Re: Wealthy Tax Avoiders.

Aerolor,

If you want an honest answer, I don't really know, but I have three examples of what has happened to and around me..

When we first moved here there were an old couple, (English) living nearly opposite us, I say old, I wa nearly seventy and my wife sixty five, so they were around the early -mid eighty mark.

Shelia, the wife, had suffered from a bad back for long time and would just sit in a chair all day watching her favourite T.V. programmes, she was on medications, please don't ask what.

Victor, the Husband was a wily old man, although well into his eighties had a razor sharp brain but was very frustrated because ot the problems he had with having Parkinsons disease --- angina ( not sure of the spelling) --- and one or two other problems ---- all these problems were treated with "pills" of sorts.

Because both were over seventy five, all ------ medication doctors fees --- hospitalisations were free at scource, I think they still had to pay for a visit to see a specialist though because here in France all the specialists are private practitioners --- and the way it works is this.

The government have a Tariff of payments they pay a specialist, but the specialist is allowed, (witin reason, or he won't get any "customers")to charge extra for his services, your top up insurance will then cover the amount ABOVE that which the government will pay, this is why, when I said in my last post that if you don't take out a "top up" insurance you have to pay anything above the governments 75% out of your own pocket. You have to actually pay the specialis after each visit, which is then automatically reimbursed.

Vic has since died and his wife moved in with Grandchildren.


The second case is this,

My wife started bleeding from her "rear end", a cancerous colon has been diagnosed, she has gone through radio and chemo treatment, and is going into hospital on the 8th of Aug to have it removed, all cancer treatment is free in France, you pay for NOTHING, ( except when visiting a specialist, and then the above explanation applies), once you are "in the system" you pay for nothing, any "extra" charges are sent directly to your top up insurers, those on or below the minimum wage and those not covered by by a top up insurance get all treatments -- hospitalisations -- after care-- totally free, including a "taxi" to pick you up, wait while your'e treated and take you home, no matter how many times you have to visit a hospital specialist/ whatever.

Th only other way I know is that a lady -- Madame Simone --- a truly lovely lady, lived in our commune, she was very old, and could no longer cope with looking after herself so she opted to enter a medically controlled old peoples home, as far as I know at no charge to herself.

I say this because a year or so ago the lady died, her house was sold by the remaining family, which implies to me that the state didn't demand all her private assets be sold in order to assist pymentof living in "care", none of her family were expected to pay for anything, she was allowed a small amount of "pocket money" from her state pension and the rest went towards her costs of living in "care".

Because my wife is five years younger than I, it is HER name on our insurance policy, because of me being nearly seventy, at the time, had the policy been in my name it would have been far more expensive, because of my age, and by law, the insurance companies can't just "hyke" up the costs because youv'e ---had an accident ---- as it were.

Ive tried to explain things as simply as i can and i apologise if I have confused you, but please feel free to ask any questions regarding health care --- living here --- whatever, if i am able to i will answer all.---or start a new thread in order to do so.

Re: Wealthy Tax Avoiders.

Brace yourself jonsey ... there's a compliment coming your way.

Feel free to tell me ... about your decision to uproot and live in France and what the lifestyle differences are over there. I find it interesting. Perhaps you should start a blog like thread with instalments of the Great Migration a la Francais!
Who knows ... one day I might try and escape through the Chunnel myself and fight my way through the pack of immigrants surging this way

Re: Wealthy Tax Avoiders.

OK, you asked for it, under DISCUSSIONS and under YOUR heading

Re: Wealthy Tax Avoiders.

Thanks for taking the trouble to explain Jonsey. I thought that it was the insurance policies that covered the healthcare of ex-pats. - Should have known better - France is a Socialist country these days (I put that bit in for Uncle Joe - lol.). It sounds like a good deal with not much to be concerned about healthcare-wise whe getting older. I have heard that the French healthcare system is considered amongst the best in the world.

Re: Wealthy Tax Avoiders.

Getting back to the original post, I would guess one understandable reason the wealthy avoid taxes is the wasteful way that tax is spent by successive governments - handed out in huge lumps to the feckless, splurged on illegal wars and given away to countries better off than us. I begin to see their point - I'd probably think the same way.

Re: Wealthy Tax Avoiders.

Whether rich or poor who among us pays a cent more tax that they need to?

I certainly never have, I looked for any deductions I could claim on my wages.