THE dream of a new life in France for thousands of Britons is to be dealt a blow by Nicolas Sarkozy, the new president, with plans to strip them of their subsidised healthcare.

Expatriates, many of whom have cashed in on the boom in the British property market to take early retirement, have been told to surrender the documents that entitle them to French state healthcare.

Now they face potentially crippling private healthcare bills in France and the prospect of having to sell their homes abroad if they wish to receive free National Health Service treatment in Britain.

Helplines and websites have been inundated in the past week after expatriates received letters from the French social security ministry.

Larry Fulton, chief executive of Exclusive Healthcare, which specialises in providing health cover for British expatriates in France, said that he had received hundreds of worried calls.

He warned that retired Britons could end up having to pay as much as to £2,350 a year each for insurance and “excess” charges of £80 per claim.

“The [French authorities] are letting the change of law seep in. If they were taking healthcare costs back from the French population they [the French people] would burn the centre of Paris down,” he said.

According to Foreign Office figures for last year, there are 202,000 British passport holders who are resident in France. Under the change in the rules, which is due to take effect on September 30, anyone under British retirement age and not working will lose their right to French state healthcare once they have lived in the country for two years.

Those over retirement age are unaffected. About 6,000 Britons a year will be hit and potentially as many as 100,000 early retirees who have lived in France for more than two years.

Among those affected is Charles Mochan, 59, who served in the British diplomatic services as the former British high commissioner in Fiji. He took early retirement and settled in the Hautes-Pyrénées with his wife Ilse, 57, last year.

He said: “I got a brutal letter from the local social security department that explained that under new rules that came in a decree in March I would have no right to free healthcare. I am still in the system until September 30 - which is the beginning of the health year in France - but after that I will no longer be entitled.”

During Sarkozy’s election campaign the soon to be president said: “If you think 53 makes you old enough to retire, then fine, go ahead and retire. But don’t expect the state to pay for it.” The Foreign Office said that it had not intervened.

The provision of healthcare to expatriates across Europe is patchy. In Spain, new rules this year mean that European Union citizens under pensionable age have no automatic right to medical help beyond emergencies. Greece does not give free healthcare to retired people moving there from other European countries, while Portugal does.

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