After 7 months here, and 4 times at the USSL, I just get the sanitary card for my daughter, but not for us yet...

1st time : I don't have an identity card for my daughter, so they don't want to talk about us...

2nd time : I need to vaccin my daughter, and someone explained me that it's possible and how to do it. But he wanted that I stop the insurance in France to have the insurance in Italie (!?!!)

3rd time : I don't have the very last "payslip", I learn that I can't have the italien insurance because my husband doesn't pay tax for me. The guy wants that I take a doctor in their list (that he shows me) and doesn't want to hear about the doctor that someone "gives" us...

4th time : No problem for my daugther, I have her card (by the way, I didn't need her passport...)!!! But not for my husband... because they want me to give a name of a doctor, I forgot the name I had, and the "laydie" didn't want to hear about their list...

We're so fed up, that we're going to do without for us !

Hope you have a good insurance for youself !

Sorry to hear you have had such a tough time getting the health insurance.

We encountered some problems obtaining it when we first came over as my husband was working on an English contract and thus paying british taxes.

The guy at the ULSS office wouldn't give us it until my husband had finished his contract and started paying Italian taxes. He also had to declare that he supported me (I am not working) so that I could obtain it.

We were given a list of doctors in our district to choose from and the appointed doctors name was registered on our healthcards. I'm not sure of the protocol if you already have a doctor.

Although it is a headache to resolve once you have the insurance the system is quite straightforward. I found the guy in the International office at our ULSS (district 16) to be very helpful.

Good Luck!

Hi Agnes, I know it can be really difficult being an expat and understanding different insurances. I sometimes find researching different international health insurance online really conforting. It appears it hasn't been as obvious to others either. The expat online community is really re-assuring.