If you’re moving abroad, following a professional transfer or for any other expatriate reason, you should know that you can cancel your health insurance under article L221-17 of the French Mutual Insurance Code… under certain conditions!
Under what conditions can I cancel my health insurance?
If you leave French territory for more than three months, you lose your French social security rights, and you must inform your Caisse primaire d’assurance maladie. The same applies to your mutual insurance company: if your situation changes, leading to a change in the risks covered by your benefits, you can cancel your contract. This may involve a change of address, marital status, professional activity,
retirement or cessation of activity. However, depending on the organization, there may be different cancellation conditions (for contracts of less than 1 year, as explained below for contracts of more than 1 year). To fully understand this, we recommend that you refer to your insurance contract, or simply ask your insurance company for advice. Some insurance companies may ask for a certificate of deregistration from the CPAM to cancel your policy, while others only accept cancellations for periods of more than 1 year abroad, for example. Everything is written into your contract, so please refer to it for the terms and conditions. FYI: the same applies to compulsory company mutual insurance plans. You can cancel your contract with your company as soon as you move abroad.
Termination procedures
In practice, to cancel a health insurance contract, as for any other insurance contract, it is preferable to send a registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt to the insurance company’s head office. This letter must be accompanied by proof of change of profession and/or place of residence. This may include a residence permit, moving invoice, proof of address, employment contract, etc. Once again, it’s best to contact your insurer to find out what documents are required. Please note that in certain situations, the new insurer can take care of cancelling the contract with the old insurer. The cancellation letter must clearly state your wish to cancel your contract. It must also identify your contract, either by your contact details or by a contract number. From the date of dispatch of the registered letter (the date on the postmark), the cancellation period is one month. You have three months to assert your rights. Once you have all the supporting documents, there’s no need to send the registered letter by a specific date. Just remember to send it to the right address! The insurance company’s head office is shown on your contract.
Special case for contracts over one year old
We mentioned above the cancellation conditions for contracts less than one year old. For contracts that were signed more than a year ago, thanks to the December 2020 law (also known as the infra-annual mutual law), you no longer need to give a reason for cancellation, and you don’t pay a penalty. You can cancel your contract at any time and free of charge as long as it was taken out more than a year ago. You should also be aware that it is now possible to send your cancellation letter by e-mail or by simple letter. We recommend, however, that you send everything by registered post. FYI: before this, cancelling a health insurance policy was covered by the Chatel law of January 2008. Under this law, your insurer was required to send you a notice of expiry to inform you of the deadline for cancelling your contract (usually 2 months before this date). You also had to respect your contract’s anniversary date, also known as the annual renewal date.
What about your family?
If your family, your spouse and/or children, are attached to your insurance contract, then the cancellation will result in the closure of their rights. All beneficiaries of the contract are removed. However, following cancellation, anyone registered on the previous contract may receive a new formula or a new offer (if you are going abroad alone). It’s important to bear in mind, however, that going abroad increases potential risks, and therefore the cost of premiums. Finally, while it’s advisable to cancel your home, car and health insurance policies if they no longer correspond to your situation, it’s also advisable to take out new health insurance that’s more in line with your expatriate status. Whether it’s insurance in your destination country, linked to your new job, or
international insurance, it’s always a good idea to turn to another insurer. Visit our website Santexpat.fr: enter your situation, age and destination country, and our team of health experts will find the best insurance deals for you. We’ll find the plan that suits you best
