# Health Insurance choices for visa



## nrlaurin

I am getting ready to apply for a long-stay visitor visa and wondered about the experiences others have had with either Exclusive / April and with ACS.

For example, has it been difficult to get reimbursed for expenses? Are there services that weren’t covered that you wish you had, in hindsight? If you paid in advance rather than monthly, once you got your carte vitale were you able to convert the coverage to a top-up mutuelle or get a refund for the remaining months?

Always appreciate the insights from this group! Thanks.


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## Peter_E

My experience with ACS was good. I wrote abut it in this thread, on pg2








Health Insurance For Long Stay Visa -France-


I am about to apply for the VLS (visiteur) next week. The requirement is to acquire a one year health insurance for expats. The Visa checklist doesn't make clear if an annual prepayment of the policy is required. I am hoping to select the monthly payment plan and cancel it once I am eligible for...




www.expatforum.com


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## jweihl

nrlaurin said:


> I am getting ready to apply for a long-stay visitor visa and wondered about the experiences others have had with either Exclusive / April and with ACS.
> 
> For example, has it been difficult to get reimbursed for expenses? Are there services that weren’t covered that you wish you had, in hindsight? If you paid in advance rather than monthly, once you got your carte vitale were you able to convert the coverage to a top-up mutuelle or get a refund for the remaining months?
> 
> Always appreciate the insights from this group! Thanks.


We had an April policy when we got our initial visa, for which we paid monthly. The policy was for 1 year, but was convertable to a mutuelle (which we did) after we got our attestations de droits de l'assurance maladie (approved into the French health care system) after being resident about 5 months. That meant we were able to pay reduced premiums for the 7 months that would have remained on our original policy.


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## saffron_gin

I got a basic run off the mill schengen visa insurance from a French company which was cheaper than any US options I could find. However, the company failed to cover anything for me (although the writing was that it is equivalent to the French system) - they invented a new deductible of 50 euros (which isn't stated anywhere) and basically gave me the run around...Luckily it was not too many things, but you could tell it is a scam as their operators freak out and transfer you to their corporate sales team who find it easier I suppose to deflect and obfuscate...so don't go with Mondassur is what I am saying lol


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## nrlaurin

jweihl said:


> We had an April policy when we got our initial visa, for which we paid monthly. The policy was for 1 year, but was convertable to a mutuelle (which we did) after we got our attestations de droits de l'assurance maladie (approved into the French health care system) after being resident about 5 months. That meant we were able to pay reduced premiums for the 7 months that would have remained on our original policy.


Have you had to make any claims for reimbursement? If so how did that go for you?


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