Wednesday 10 July 2013

Dental treatment update

Just a quick follow up to my last post, to give an idea how long these things take. I paid the bill for the treatment on a Friday and had the payment back from CPAM into my bank account the following Thursday.
The balance due from the insurance of 250 euros ( the maximum allowed under my plan ) was repaid into my bank 4 days later.

This is pretty consistent with other repayments with the CPAM payment always coming first. Both payments come automatically after showing my Carte Vitale card which is linked electronically to my insurance policy.

Saturday 6 July 2013

Dental treatment and costs

Many people moving to France to live are concerned about health costs and rightly so. The health service here in France is generally accepted to be one of the best in the world and it can come as a bit of a surprise how quickly you can get an appointment for specialists etc. I have recently had a course of dental treatment so I thought I would share with people what the actual costs are over here from a first hand experience
























Photo attributed to Irina Patrascu


up to date as to July 2013  and also to show what can be claimed back from the health service If you are registered here.

I have had quite an extensive course of treatments involving 5 fillings one extraction and 3 crowns including quite a number of xrays.
The fillings extraction and clean came to a total of 798 euros and the 3 crowns were 327 euros each making a total of 981 euros so 1779 euros in all. I opted for metal crowns as they were on molars out of sight but If I had ceramic ones they would have totaled over 2000 euros for the 3.

At the end of the treatment I had to pay the full amount due on the spot, however as is normal once you are registered here and on the health system a percentage repayment is made direct to your bank within a few days. I received a total repayment of 784 euros made up of 558 euros being 70% of the 798 euros plus 225 euros off the crowns.
The 225 euros was based 70% of a figure of 322 euros rather than the 981 as presumably this is classified as being partly cosmetic.

In addition, I have a private health care plan which allows me up to 250 euros a year for dental work. There are many health care plans at a variety of costs and cover so this will change depending on what you take out.

So in total I will have been repaid a total of 1034 euros from the total of 1779 euros I paid.

I hope this is helpful to others to give some idea of what to expect

Monday 1 July 2013

Busy, Busy, Busy

Well at last we seem set for some warmer weather, It has been a long time coming this year so not before time. I'm taking advantage of it and spending most days in the garden either on the vegetable plot or cutting down and logging up more trees.


As you can see from the photo, the potatoes are looking good this year but the broad beans are stunted, at least I seem to have the weeds under control this year.

We have been more than a little disappointed in our vegetable plots as a lot of things we put in don't do well at all. We have put this down to the soil and after a stilted French chat with a neighbough at the rear of us she confirmed what we thought. The main problem is that the soil is too acidic so that although some things seem to do OK such as potatoes, courgettes and most of the fruit such as raspberries, strawberries, blackcurrants etc.
The answer seems to be to apply lime to the ground to raise the PH levels and also to get some more compost into the ground. I shall be making sure that I use as much of the huge amount of autumn leaves as I can this year.

Our fir trees at the back of the house are gradually coming down, It is making a big difference, not only to the amount of extra sunlight that we get to our decking area but also gives us a lovely view over the garden which we never had before.