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Brexit stories: ‘We have both had cancer, no French health insurance will cover us now’

Elderly Britons in France diagnosed with serious and life-threatening illness like cancer and Parkinson's are suffering from Brexit uncertainty more than most. The Local's editor Emma Pearson hears some of their heartbreaking accounts.

Published: 11 October 2019 13:44 CEST

Brexit stories: 'We have both had cancer, no French health insurance will cover us now'

Illustration photo: AFP

Brenda Henderson first came to France as a student in 1968 – the year the country took to the barricades to protest at injustice. Now in her 70s and seriously ill with Parkinson's, she has retained that fighting spirit and is now engaged in the battle for citizens rights for British people in France after Brexit.

From her home in Dordogne, she runs regular coffee mornings for other British people to help them navigate the complex systems for residency and healthcare.

She said. “I have heard some heartbreaking stories – the man who spent two years waiting and worrying about his residency and whose wife died suddenly before they got it, a friend who is British but was born in South Africa, another woman who tried to go back to the UK but couldn't get a place at any nursing homes for the care she needs, it's so sad.

READ ALSO France's new carte de séjour residency website – how does it work and what do I need?

“I suffer from Parkinson's so I get very tired but I still feel I need to help people. Some don't have very good French so find accessing the system hard, others are put off by the bureaucracy and find the questions very personal and intrusive and of course people are proud and don't want to feel that they're taking handouts from the state.

“Ultimately I think it will be financial problems that drive a lot of people back to the UK. Pensioners have already lost a lot because of the fall in the value of the pound and I think we all know people who are barely making ends meet, who don't go out any more. I'm quite proud of how I can budget but it does get exhausting after a while and a lot of people end up very isolated because they can't do things like go out for dinner or go down to the bar for a drink.

“I have my citizenship interview next week, so hopefully my residency is sorted, I've been revising a lot of French history and trying to remember the words of the Marseillaise.”

Brenda was one of dozens of British people who shared their concerns at an outreach meeting in Dordogne organised by the British Embassy.

As the current Brexit date approaches, and with little sign of a deal being made, many who have lives in France for decades are increasingly worried about how they will stay in the country and – a major concern for many – whether their healthcare will continue to be paid for.

Although healthcare is obviously a concern for everyone, it is a particular worry for people who are suffer from serious illnessses – worried that life-saving medication and treatment could be suddenly halted or become unaffordable, and knowing that with pre-extisting conditions private health insurance is not an option for them.

Francis Towers, also in his 70s and originally from Yorkshire, said: “I have cancer so I need ongoing treatment plus scans and colonoscopies – all expensive stuff.

“My wife Kathleen and I have both had cancer while we've been here so no private health insurance would cover us now.

“We got this horrible letter from the NHS, really quite nasty, telling us that we would only have cover for 6 months in the case of a no-deal Brexit although we feel reassured by what we were told at the meeting. We've lived here for half our married lives so we don't want to go back to the UK but we were fearing that we would have to.

“We do have a carte de sejour though, we got one a long time ago, well before Brexit. In those days they said you didn't need one, but it was when Kathleen had cancer so we wanted a bit of reassurance about our status and we got one, although we had to go through all sorts of battles and get the French state mediator involved. But thank goodness we did.”

In terms of residency, the Towers are among the lucky ones. Time and again people spoke of trying for months to get an appointment for a residency application at their local prefecture, only to be find they were all full.

Barbara and Neville Davies said: “We don't have a carte de séjour because we've not been able to get an appointment at the préfecture, for months now it has just been saying that there are no available appointments. Its so frustrating because we have friends in other parts of France who have got their appointments and got their cards without any trouble.

“We're both pensioners on the S1 and very worried about healthcare as we both have health conditions, Neville has cancer that he will need treatment for over the next five years.

“We're especially worried because we have been through something similar before when retirees were told they didn't have the right to a carte vitale. We looked into private health insurance then but no-one would cover us because of our pre existing conditions. So although we are reassured by the embassy telling us we will be covered for two years, we know how suddenly these things can be taken away and if you're reliant on ongoing treatment it is very worrying.”

The NHS has written to all S1 holders in France telling them that they will only be covered for six months. At the Perigeux meeting, Embassy minister Matthew Lodge said that pensioners in France would have their costs covered for two years as laid down in France's no-deal law, while the British and French authorities try to come to a bilateral agreement.

But in a no-deal exit British pensioners will likely have to sign up to the PUMa health scheme which could see them having to shell out contributions, known as social charges from their pensions. Many may not be able to afford them.

Gill Sander said: “Although we were reassured by the two year promise – what happens after that? Really it's just more waiting, we've been in limbo for the last three and a half years and now we're just told to wait another two years and hope that things will be worked out after that.

“It means we can't plan, we don't know what will happen about family visiting and we have no voice, no one to speak for us.”

Her husband Graham added: “For me the biggest sadness is just leaving the EU – to know that the next generation will not have the opportunities that we have had to work, to travel, to study and to make our homes where we want. It's a great sadness.”

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INTERVIEW: 'A lot of people think Brexit is done, but it's not for Brits in Europe'

In the early days of 2021, after the United Kingdom had left the EU and completed the final stage of Brexit, many British citizens returned to their home countries in Europe only to face a grilling at the border.

Though the Withdrawal Agreement (WA) technically guaranteed their right to live and work in the countries they’d settled in before Brexit, there was widespread confusion about these fundamental rights and many were treated like new arrivals.

Over time, the chaos at the airports subsided as border officials and airlines were given clearer guidance on the treatment of Brits. But three years later, a number of Brits who live on the continent still face problems when it comes to proving their post-Brexit rights.

This was the reason campaign group British in Europe decided to set up their new EU-funded ICE project. Starting this year in March, it aims to build valuable connections between UK citizens abroad and mentor the next generation of civil rights advocates around the continent. The acronym stands for ‘Inform, Empower, Connect’ and the project’s organisers describe it as “the first project of its kind”.

“It’s a completely innovative project – especially the fact that it’s across so many countries,” Jane Golding, chair of British in Europe and one of the project’s founders, told The Local.

Bringing together groups from 11 EU member states, the project aims to train up volunteers to understand both the Withdrawal Agreement and EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, as well as learning skills like advocacy and communication, using real-life civil rights cases that are referred to British in Europe.

“The ultimate goal is to amplify the messages across the wider group,” said Golding. “You start with the volunteers, they go back to their groups, then the people that we train, they go back and train people. Then they pass on that knowledge to the wider groups, on their Facebook accounts and through social media, and hopefully it all snowballs, not just in their countries but across the EU.”

‘Far-reaching repercussions’

So many years after Brexit, it’s hard to believe that there’s still a need for a project like ICE that empowers Brits to protect their rights. Indeed, the future of groups like British in Europe and regional groups like British in Germany and British in Spain felt uncertain just a year or two ago.

But Golding says there are still serious issues cropping up for Brits in several countries around Europe – they just have a different quality to the problems that arose at the start.

“In some ways it’s needed even more because as we predicted right at the beginning, at the first stage of implementation, you’ve got the more routine cases,” she explained.

“What we’re seeing now is not as many cases, but when the cases come up, they’re complex. They can have such far-reaching repercussions on people’s lives. And of course, memories start to fade. A lot of people think Brexit is already done, but it’s not.”

Volunteers in British in Europe ICE project

The volunteers of the British in Europe ICE project pose for a photo at the kick-off meeting in Brussels on May 21st, 2024. Photo courtesy of Jane Golding

Though the rights set out in the Withdrawal Agreement apply across the continent, different countries have taken different approaches to implementing them.

That means that while in Germany, for example, UK citizens simply had to declare that they lived in the country, people in neighbouring Denmark had to apply for their rights.

This led to a notorious situation in Denmark in which as many as 2,000 Brits were threatened with deportation after not applying in time or completing the right application process. According to Golding, this had a lot to do with the fact that people who arrived in 2020 weren’t given the same information as other UK migrants who arrived before.

In Sweden, meanwhile, the situation is still difficult for many Brits who lived there prior to Brexit.

“There have been issues with an anomalously high numbers of refusals compared to other countries, and they seem to be taking a very strict approach on late applications,” Golding explained.

Portugal has been another difficult case. Although the country opted for a declaratory system where Brits could simply exchange old residence documents for a new ID card after Brexit, reports suggest that the authorities have taken years to issue these cards, leaving many of the some 34,000 Brits in the country in limbo.

“While people are still waiting to have their status confirmed and have their card in their hand, it’s difficult to access a whole range of services, like health services, or applying for jobs or dealing with the authorities, or even going to the bank,” Golding said. “All of these problems just affect people’s lives.”

A French border guard checks a passport at the border

A French border guard checks a passport at the border. Photo by DENIS CHARLET / AFP

There are also concerns about the EU’s new exit and entry system (EES), due to come into force in October, which is based on biometric documentation.

“We still do not have clear data on how many people in declaratory countries like Germany, where it wasn’t compulsory to apply for the card, don’t actually have a card,” Golding said. “How is that going to play out if it’s a document-based digitalised system?”

A lack of support

In the immediate aftermath of Brexit, funding from the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) was still available to support NGOs in Europe helping Brits with their migration and civil rights issues. But that temporary funding soon expired, leaving groups like British in Europe largely on their own.

“The whole point is people’s lives change at very different paces,” Golding said. “And now this project is really going to start to pick up some of those cases and report on those issues, which is really crucial and exciting for the precedent that it sets, and it’s very clearly necessary still, because people don’t just sort their lives in the 18 months that the FCDO chose to supply that funding.”

This feeling of being left alone and increasingly isolated from the UK is one that many Brits in Europe have felt in the aftermath of Brexit. But the upcoming UK election on July 4th could be a game-changer.

This time, following a change in the law, Brits who have lived abroad for more than 15 years will be able to vote for the first time.

Polling station in the UK

A polling station in the UK. Photo by Elliott Stallion on Unsplash

When it comes to the election, the message from British in Europe is clear: “Make your voice count now, make your vote count, make sure you use it,” Golding said.

With the June 18th registration deadline fast approaching, BiE is advising UK citizens abroad to apply for a proxy vote as soon as possible, rather than relying on a postal vote from abroad. Since the 15-year rule was abolished on January 16th, more than 100,000 British citizens have registered to vote, according to official statistics. It is unclear how many were registered before the change in the law.

With an estimated 5.5 million Brits currently living abroad – 1.3 million of whom are in the EU – this could have a significant impact on the electoral landscape, Golding says. But most significantly, the change is creating a feeling of connection and belonging that wasn’t there before.

Nurturing this sense of belonging is one of the main goals of ICE.

With these bridges being built, British in Europe hopes to create a network of support that spans across borders.

“Now we’ve met. We’re going to meet,” said Golding. “We know we’re going to meet again in Berlin in October and then we’ll meet again in the new year in 2025 as well. It means a huge amount because even British in Europe, our steering team, we’ve only met physically three times.”

This opens up the possibility of people sharing their knowledge from country to country, Golding explained.

“There is crossover and the reassurance of having that EU wide view and knowing that you’re not alone and knowing that in this country, we managed to get this solution,” she said. “And then you can go back and say to the authorities in your country, well, in that country they did that – all of that helps. It’s really good.”

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