cost of having cancer in France

[laurah]

Hi
I am 66 and my husband is 65. we had top up insurance for a few years but never used it and could no longer afford it . Then my husband got Myeloma but everyone including our doctor, french neighbours and all the English said don't worry, you won't have to pay anything all cancer treatment etc is free in France but its certainly not. we have Carte Vitales, S1's from UK. I am inundated with bills. Apparently we have to pay for all consultations which are many every month, we were told to get an ambulance taxi for chemo etc and have now just been told its only covered for 65% , they have taken 8 months to bill us, its a lot of money. We knew we had to pay hospital stays but he went in for 3 weeks for a stem cell transplant which went wrong and he is now in intensive care on life support, hopefully he will get through it but it will be a long hospital stay. People must be made aware that Cancer is NOT free in France. Has anyone else come up against the same problem. Yes in hindsight we should have kept up our top up insurance but we had no choice but to cancel it as we were struggling.

[KarenVM87]

Hello Laurah,
I am sorry to hear about your terrible situation. I just wonder if you have applied through your Doctor for ALD which would give your husband 100% prise en charge. I attach Q/A from http://www.ameli.fr website.

http://www.ameli.fr/assures/droits-et-d ... vous-rembo

I don't know where you are in France but please please call our national helpline 0800 240 200 or the association in your area who may be able to help you further.
Karen