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Final stage of registering with commune - attestation sons de santé
Hi all,
After waiting more than 2 months, the Police came yesterday to progress my registration with the Brussels commune. However, they handed me a piece of paper with my registration number etc on but at the bottom it says that, to finish the application, I need to take my attestation sons de santé into the Brussels commune office, where they can then issue me with my ID card. This needs to be done within 1 month from yesterday.
I start working at the end of October where I get health insurance as part of my package, however it now seems that I need to have cover in the interim to meet the commune requirements.
Can anyone please advise? What level of cover do I need etc? I'm a British citizen who currently has BUPA private medical cover in the UK, travel insurance etc, as well of course access to the EHIC health insurance card... will any of these meet the requirements, or do I need something more Belgium specific in the interim?
Thanks so much.
Just as an update on this, the mutuelle have given me a letter, addressed to the commune, which basically says that as long as they give me an Annex 8, they'll give me cover back dated to 1st July 2016. I've given this letter to my soon to be new employer and they've said that it should be fine to comply with what the commune will want. It isn't strictly an attestation soins de santé as far as I can see, but I'll see what the commune says on Friday when I take it in!
SHORTOF, I'm interested how you've managed to keep SS eligibility in the UK and Belgium... the EHIC people I spoke to said that wasn't possible. Do you just pay the circa £12 (or whatever it is) per month in NI to the UK, or do you pay more? I'd prefer to keep NHS cover as I have a pre-existing medical condition and a relationship now with the team at a hospital in London, but everything that I'm hearing is saying that isn't possible?
The EHIC people are wrong. I work in 2 countries and due to my status in one country or rather the type of job, I am not allowed to transfer ss to the other country, I could transfer out of Belgium to the UK that direction, but then I don't get to access child benefit etc here by doing so, so I just pay my 10 percent (oh god it's more I think now in UK) and it appears around 12 per cent here too. For most people however, it isn't possible to pay in both countries and I certainly wouldn't pay in the UK if I were allowed not to, as I am getting no benefits at all from it, but at least others less fortunate in the UK are.
Health care here is excellent, the chances are your pre existing medical condition here will be well looked after. If it's something requiring regular hospital contact, well there are several large teaching hospitals here and smaller ones too where English is widely spoken. One of the family are regular visitors to St Luc, the main hospital for the eastern communes where English is the second language not Dutch in practical terms and some staff speak poor French and perfect English. I cannot fault the medical care here at all. I even had an emergency operation myself whereas in the UK I know I would have been sent home with 6 weeks antibiotics and put on a waiting list of at least 6 months. The total cost I paid was the cost of the thermometer which you can supply yourself, but as it was an emergency, I didn't happen to have one on me, I was something like 5 euro, the hospitalisation insurance and mutuelle insurance paid the rest directly.
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