Holidays in France from Israel: which travel insurance?

Do you live in Israel and are you planning a stay in France to see family or spend the holidays? The short answer is yes: in most cases, travel insurance is still useful, even to go back "home". The reason is simple: your Israeli health cover was designed to work in Israel, not abroad, and your former French cover has not necessarily followed you when you left.

Why your kupat holim does not follow you to France

When you settle in Israel, you join one of the four health funds (kupot holim) that manage the basic "basket of services" provided for by Israeli health insurance law. This basket was built to be used within the Israeli care network: clinics, hospitals and pharmacies in Israel. Once you cross the border, this basic safety net generally no longer applies in the same way.

Some Israeli supplementary health plans (the "shaban", such as Meuhedet Adif or Meuhedet Si) provide partial cover for treatment abroad, but it usually targets specific situations, for example surgery abroad when it is not available in Israel, and not a medical emergency during a holiday, according to the information published by Meuhedet on its supplementary offers. For a typical emergency during a stay in France, this is generally not the kind of cover that kicks in first: it is better to check the exact conditions of your own contract before assuming you are covered.

And is your former French cover still active?

This is the question many olim and expatriates forget to ask. If you are no longer a member of the French Sécurité sociale, because you transferred your residence to Israel, you are in principle no longer automatically covered for care received in France either, at least not in the same way as an active resident. The website of the French embassy in Israel also reminds us, in general terms, that the French state does not pay the healthcare costs of its nationals abroad: a logic that also applies, by implication, to an occasional stay in France without active membership.

The cover provided by your

Israeli health fund, in practice, almost always stops at the country's borders. That is the sentence to remember before you pack your bags, whatever the destination.

One option exists to re-establish a link with the French system: the Caisse des Français de l'Étranger (CFE), which allows voluntary, individual membership, with a level of cover of your choice, and which in particular covers certain temporary stays in France according to the information published by the French embassy in Israel. It is not, however, a direct equivalent of standard travel insurance: the CFE does not target the same cover as travel assistance insurance, and it is useful to compare the two approaches before choosing, depending on your personal situation.

What travel insurance generally covers for this kind of trip

For a return trip between Israel and France, a well-chosen travel insurance generally covers:

Limits, excesses and exclusions vary greatly from one contract to another, as does the treatment of a medical condition already known before departure. It is therefore better to compare the general terms rather than rely on the price alone displayed on a comparison site.

And is a premium bank card enough?

Many travellers think they are automatically covered thanks to a premium bank card. This is sometimes true, but in a more limited way than people believe: according to the information published by the French embassy in Israel, a bank card can offer basic cover for stays of less than 90 days, subject to the conditions specific to each contract, for example having paid for the ticket or the stay with that same card. Reimbursement limits, exclusions linked to age or to a known condition, and whether or not repatriation is covered vary enormously from one card to another. Before leaving, it is better to reread the terms of your card rather than assume it plays the same role as real travel insurance.

What to check before you leave

Before booking your tickets, take the time to check three things: the real status of your French membership (active, dormant, or never reactivated since your aliyah), the exact extent of your Israeli supplementary health plan for treatment outside Israel, and the exclusions of the travel insurance contract you are considering, in particular on known medical conditions. These three elements differ from one situation to another, and that is precisely why a generic answer is not enough to cover every case.

If you have any doubt about your situation, particularly if you left the French system a long time ago or if you are travelling with children or elderly people, a broker can look at your file in concrete terms and point you to suitable cover rather than a generic offer. You can also consult our dedicated page on travel insurance to understand the main types of cover available before you leave.