Living in France, working in Switzerland, close to Geneva’s hospitals, but in the French social security system? 84% of border workers say no thanks.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – French residents who work in Switzerland have been given a reprieve on paying into the national social security system, by the French government. The Groupement transfrontalier européen (GTE) in Annemasse was told Monday morning by a Socialist minister that Marisol Touraine, minister for social affairs, has decided to leave the deadline at 31 May 2014, as earlier negotiated.
The issue has been both financial and medical for border workers, who fear the more expensive French system will eat into their purchasing power, but who also do not want to see their access to the Swiss health care system end. For many, the quality of the Swiss system but also the proximity of major care centres, for example in Geneva and Basel, are issues.
Le Temps (registration required) reports that the group represents some 35,000 frontaliers, or border workers.
Fewer than 135,000 workers, TF1, French television reported last week, could help pad the coffers of the French social security system with an estimated euros 400 million in 2013 and 500m the following year. Only 84 percent of frontaliers currently pay into the system, choosing Swiss insurance under an opt-out programme that Paris has considered ending.
