Health
Health insurance for international students
Once you have registered with the International Office, you must apply for French health insurance if necessary.
This is compulsory for all students who do not have health insurance from an EU or EEA country or from Switzerland, and in a few special cases for students covered by the European Community.
You must come to France with a European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) which is valid throughout your stay abroad. This is a free card issued by your health insurance organization, enabling you to receive health care in a public establishment. This card entitles you to the same conditions and rates as people insured in France.
When you receive healthcare in France, you must present your EHIC (or provisional certificate). If you pay healthcare costs for treatment that is usually free of charge in France, you have two options for reimbursement:
- submit a claim for reimbursement to your health insurance organization in your home country, on presentation of supporting documents obtained in France (a priori, you won’t need to have these documents translated into the language of your home country, as European health systems are linked) or
- contact the Caisse primaire d’assurance maladie (CPAM) in France.
If you wish to be reimbursed in France, you must present the following documents to the CPAM:
- your medical claim form (and prescription if applicable),
- a photocopy of your EHIC card (or provisional certificate),
- your UBE school certificate (downloadable from your online account ENT),
- your RIB (bank account details – the account may be in a foreign bank, but it must be in your name) and
- an affidavit stating that you remain financially dependent on your parents.
Are you officially financially independent from your parents, or do you work in France or work online from France for a company abroad? If so, you must register with the French social security system in order to benefit from French health insurance. How to register? Once you have completed your administrative registration at the Université Bourgogne Europe, follow the necessary steps by registering on the Etudiant-etranger.ameli.fr website. We also recommend that you take out supplementary health insurance, known as a ‘mutuelle’, which can cover the portion of healthcare costs not covered by basic health insurance. Do you have a modest income and can’t afford to take out a mutuelle? Check whether you are eligible for the complementary health insurance scheme, which will cost you nothing or less than 1 euro/day.
Good to know: in the event of hospitalization, you generally won’t have to pay in advance, as your EHIC card is sufficient (except in specific establishments in cities like Paris that are not covered by the French health insurance system).
Health insurance
Once you have completed your administrative registration at the University of Burgundy, you must register with the French social security system on the Etudiant-etranger.ameli.fr website to be covered in the event of health problems (illness, hospitalization, etc.).
Read the instructions on how to register carefully and see also all the information on French social security on the Assurance Maladie website.
Campus France tutorials
- Everything you need to know about health insurance before arriving in France
- Social security registration
Supplementary health insurance (mutuelle)
Membership in the basic social security system enables you to receive care in the event of health problems, and covers the majority of costs (up to 70% on average). You are responsible for the remaining costs. To cover costs not covered by basic social security coverage, you are strongly advised to take out supplementary health insurance, known as a mutuelle.
This insurance is not compulsory, but it can be very useful, as it can cover all or part of your remaining out-of-pocket expenses, depending on the package you choose. If you would like to take out complementary health insurance, you can contact one of the many organizations that offer this type of insurance: student mutual insurers (SMERRA, LMDE) or general organizations (MGEN, AÉSIO, MAAF, AG2R, MAIF, MATMUT, MACIF etc.).
There are various offers and packages to choose from, depending on your needs.
Do you have a modest income and can’t afford to take out a mutual insurance policy? Check if you are eligible for complementary health insurance that will cost you nothing or less than 1 euro/day.
Good to know !
As a student at Université Bourgogne Europe, you have access to the Student Health Service (SSE), where you can consult a general practitioner, a psychiatrist, a gynecologist, nurses, a psychologist, a marriage counselor or a team seconded from the STD Center (Centre gratuit d’information de diagnostic et de dépistage des infections sexuellement transmissibles).
