Choosing your health insurance: what pitfalls to avoid ?
In France, a health insurance, also called mutual insurance or complementary health insurance, allows to cover a large part of the costs related to health, by complement to the participation of the Assurance Maladie.
As you probably know, having a health insurance is almost compulsory for everyone in France: all employees must have one, and it is strongly advised to self-employed people as well as students to have one, to avoid renouncing to care because of a too high cost. But you have the freedom to choose your mutual insurance. For example, a company manager must offer the company's complementary health insurance to all employees, who must subscribe to it, unless they can prove that they are already covered elsewhere, which means that you can choose a health insurance policy yourself.
This is also true for the self-employed, students who are not covered by their parents, or people who prefer to have two mutual insurance companies to be better reimbursed (nothing prevents you from doing so). But how to choose your health insurance ? Since they have a cost, what pitfalls should be avoided to avoid paying for nothing? ?
What’What is it? A good health insurance ?
A good complementary health insurance, it is a health insurance that covers your risks. Understand well: all mutual insurance companies do not reimburse all items of expenditure equally well, it will depend on the contract to which you subscribe. Obviously, the more a health insurance company reimburses, the more it will be expensive, but it is more complicated than that. A health insurance can, for example, cover you very well for glasses: if you don't wear glasses, but you need regular dental care, it would be better to choose a mutual insurance that focuses on the reimbursement of dental care and not on optical expenses.
In the same way, if you have children who will be attached to your mutual insurance company, the health expenses will not be the same as if you are an elderly person who often needs to be hospitalized.
Thus, a good health insurance is the one that suits you. It must correspond to your means and your medical needs: there is no need to cover all health expenses to the maximum. Basic coverage may be enough for you.
If you have trouble finding your way around complementary health insurance, it's normal: to find the one that suits you, you need to compare offers and establish your needs.
What are the pitfalls to avoid?
Even if we all have, in France, quite extensive health rights, the Health Insurance cannot cover everything. Choosing the right health insurance is therefore necessary in order to be able to treat yourself with peace of mind, without thinking about the price you will spend. For that, here are some pitfalls to avoidter :
