AXA Partners and UFE launch assistance and healthcare coverage

AXA Partners and UFE launch assistance and healthcare coverage for all French people abroad

82%* of French people living abroad have a local employment contract, meaning that they only have local healthcare coverage, or sometimes no healthcare coverage at all. AXA Partners and the Union des Français de l’Étranger (the UFE) have therefore joined forces to provide French people living abroad with assistance and healthcare coverage – Assistance Santé UFE – providing essential guarantees in the event of accident or illness, for only €1.10 per day.
(* Baromètre Humanis - LePetitJournal.com 2017, "Expats and welfare protection")

Assistance designed for French people living abroad

In April 2015, Mathieu J., a French cook living in Malawi, contracted malaria. He had no insurance and since he had a very serious form of the disease, he had to be repatriated to France at his family's expense. Although he has since made a full recovery, the whole business cost him €87,000.

This is far from an isolated case: numerous other French people have had similar experiences to Mathieu J’s. Although some 3 million people currently live abroad, only a small minority of them have insurance coverage that is appropriate for expats. Most French people living abroad are employees, artisans, freelancers, people employed by local companies, students or recently retired people; and they only have local healthcare insurance, meaning that they cannot always get the treatment that they need and are not always able to return to France in the event of a serious medical issue. Assistance Santé UFE was born from this reality and a strong desire to help fellow French citizens.

Assistance Santé UFE has been designed as an affordable service providing French people with medical assistance and repatriation. It also includes a remote medical consultation service available 24 hours a day, seven days a week with a doctor in France so they can get a second medical opinion in the event of their suffering from a serious illness, and it provides them with psychological and administrative support in the event of their needing to be medevaced to France.

Gilbert Chahine

Managing Director of AXA Partners

Health protection and insurance are essential, particularly when you live abroad where access to healthcare can sometimes be complicated. Although some French people living abroad work for major organisations which provide them with robust protection and health insurance, this is far from being the case for everyone. That's why we are proud to be able to provide French people living abroad with an easily affordable assistance and health insurance package.

Medical protection for €1.10 per day

Assistance Santé UFE is the leading alternative to international insurance policies which are often beyond the financial reach of many French people living abroad. At a flat rate of €1.10 per day (for adults and children alike), French expats get the support they need for any day-to-day healthcare issues they may have, or in the event of an emergency.

Our field expertise and the local roots that we have throughout the world mean that we can provide people with support in very difficult situations when they don't have any welfare protection. To provide them with the coverage they need in serious situations, we have teamed up with a number of major players in the insurance sector and come up with a product that did not exist until now – at least not at a price that made it affordable for many people.

Marc Boudin, General Manager of the UFE

Assistance Santé UFE – how it works

Four essential guarantees, valid throughout the world :

• Remote medical consultation 24/7 with a doctor in France

• Second medical opinion from the best medical specialists in the event of a serious condition

• Medical evacuation in the event of serious physical injury (coverage of up to €50,000 of medical expenses in the event of medical transfer outside the country of residence)

• Support in the event of having to return to France (administrative help, psychological support, support with looking for a medical centre)

Incredibly straightforward registration :

• Online registration at www.assistance-sante-ufe.com in just a few clicks

• No documents to provide

• No medical questionnaire

• A single tariff of €400 / year per client, irrespective of age and country of residence (€1.10 per day).

Conditions that many people can easily meet :

• Be of French nationality

• Become a member of or already be a member of the UFE

• Be officially registered as living abroad

• Be under 70 years old at the time of registration