Social Security covers the health expenses of insured persons and guarantees access to care. It promotes prevention and contributes to the regulation of the French health system. It covers the risks of illness, disability, death as well as maternity and paternity.

In theory, if you have never been covered by French Social Security, your employer must carry out the formalities required to register you.

Any company that employs an individual in France must submit a pre-recruitment declaration (DPAE) with the local URSSAF (the government organisation in charge of collecting social security and family allowance contributions).

In practice, you will have to send documents to Social Security in order to get registered:

Send the documents to your local CPAM (Caisse Primaire d'Assurance Maladie). To find the address, you can go to ameli.fr and enter your postcode.

Passeport Talent holders should send their documents to CPAM de Paris:

To follow-up on you registration, you can call CPAM services:

Reimbursements will be retroactive, the coverage of medical expenses begin from the start date of your employment contract.

In case you have medical expenses, you should keep your "feuilles de soin" or bills to get reimbursed later.

Once you have your social security number, you can send the "feuilles de soin" to your CPAM who will then reimburse you.

From the moment you have your Carte Vitale, reimbursements will be automatic.

The social security number is the number under which private individuals are registered to the national identification directory. It comprises 13 digits and enables insured parties to obtain health and maternity care under the public health insurance system.

Social security registration will lead to the issuance of a social security number and an electronic registration card, the Vitale card (“Carte Vitale”).

The attestation de droit is a document certifying that you are registered with social security in France. It is generally required when you are hired in a new company, to subscribe with a "mutuelle" (private healthcare), if you are hospitalised, etc.

You can only have this documents once you are completely registered with social security and have your permanent social security number, it can therefore take a few months after your arrival in France to get it.

3 ways to request it to social security:

Ameli.fr is the official social security website where you can manage all the procedures. You can create your account here once you have your social security number.

The Vitale card is a chip card that proves that the insuree is registered with the local health insurance fund (Caisse primaire d’assurance maladie – CPAM) and is entitled to social security coverage. During medical consultations, it must be presented to the doctor so that social security can reimburse the patient’s medical expenses and so that the latter may benefit from the third-party payer system.

If you are insured, you are not required to pay for certain procedures up front and the health professional is reimbursed directly by Social Security. The Vitale card is delivered free-of-charge to all beneficiaries of health insurance.

You can order it once you have access to your Ameli.fr account.

The social security does not cover the totality of your medical expenses. For example if you go to the doctor, the reimbursement is up to 70%.

The "mutuelle" is the private complementary insurance that will cover the difference between what you have to pay and what social security refunds. It is mandatory for the employer to have a mutuelle covering the employees. In most cases, the employees have to pay a monthly contribution to their mutuelle.

To have more information about your mutuelle, its cost, what it covers and who is covered (does it include your family?), please contact your employer.