The “Carte Vitale” will save you a lot of time to get reimbursed for your medical expenses. In this article, we will see what it is, and how to get it.
🤔 What is the “Carte Vitale”?
Carte Vitale
In France, the “Carte Vitale” is the French Health Insurance card. With it, you can get reimbursed in a few days automatically by both:
- the French health insurance (“Assurance Maladie”)
- your complementary health insurance (“mutuelle”), if you have one.
The only thing to do is to scan the “Carte Vitale” by the doctor when you pay him.
⚠️ If you don’t have the “Carte Vitale”, when you pay a doctor, he will give you back a paper called “feuille de soins”, which is the proof to send by letter to the CPAM local branch, in order to get reimbursed from your medical expenses. However, it is tedious and time-consuming.
Feuille de soins
🪪 How to Get Your “Carte Vitale”
In order to get your “Carte Vitale”, you will need to have:
- a French Social Security Number (13-digit number, starting with 1 or 2)
- an Ameli.fr account
Ordering a new card takes 5 minutes, and it will take a few days to receive it at your home.
Here are the different steps to follow:
- Go to ameli.fr
or
the mobile application Ameli:
- Login
- Click on the section “Mes Démarches”
- Click on “Commander une nouvelle carte Vitale”
- Choose the person you want to order a card for
- You will need to upload or take a photo of yourself
- You will need to upload or take a photo of your ID document (ID card, passport)
- Click on “Suivant”
- Click on “Validez”
- 🎉 You have just ordered a new “Carte Vitale”, you will receive it in a few days.
⚠️ If you uploaded bad-quality pictures, you will receive a message in your account inbox, which will tell you to upload new pictures.
Here is a video (in French) showing you exactly the different steps I described:
Conclusion
You have now your “Carte Vitale” so you can get reimbursed automatically for your medical expenses, every time you see a doctor. The next step will be to subscribe to complementary health insurance so you can get better reimbursements in case you have to see an expensive doctor:
To see the guide about healthcare in France, you can check this article:
