Tens of thousands of French people have quit the country's debt-ridden national health service and taken out private insurance with British companies, after losing faith in their "sick" welfare state, reports The Telegraph.
Growing numbers of French professionals, business owners and self-employed workers are refusing to pay expensive health service contributions, which the government says are compulsory. They are embroiled in a prolonged legal battle with the authorities, arguing that European agreements bar the French state from enforcing a "monopoly" on health insurance.
Instead, French professionals have signed up for cheaper private health insurance with companies such as Bristol-based Amariz.
Liberté Sociale, a group of professionals who are resisting state demands for payment of health contributions, estimates that at least 60,000 French people have quit the national system, the majority in the past two years since President Hollande introduced increases in taxes and health contributions. About 30,000 people have taken out policies with Amariz.
The company has set up a website and a help line in French, and reimburses their medical expenses in France.
Claude Reichman, a retired dentist and former public health official who has written a book about the welfare state, stopped paying health contributions 20 years ago. "The French system is illogical and destructive," said Dr Reichman, 77.
Christian Couturier, general secretary of Liberté Sociale, said none of those who had stopped paying national health contributions had been convicted of breaking the law. "European regulations introduced free competition in health and other services in 1992," said Mr Couturier, 47, a surgeon. However, he acknowledged that many had been prosecuted and appeals were pending.
Jennifer Landry, a dermatologist, stopped paying contributions last year.
"I was in the red because of these charges," said Dr Landry, 40. "They massacred me in 2012. It's cheaper and better to take foreign insurance and that's what more people are doing now."
Read more of this stort from The Telegraph.