Thousands of Britons who have moved to France for early retirement could lose their rights to state health care under a new law that limits benefits to nonworking expatriates.

In a move that has spread alarm in the southern and western regions favoured by the British, the authorities have begun enforcing a 2006 law that bars unemployed EU citizens from joining the French health system.

“A few hundred cases have already been refused,” said Larry Fulton, whose company in the south of France handles private insurance for British expatriates. “We are dealing with about 350 calls a day from people who are worried.”

The new rules were not supposed to affect those who have already entered the French system, but local authorities seem to have latitude to interpret the law. In at least one case, a resident Briton has been asked to return his French health card. Charles Mochan, 59, a former British High Commissioner to Fiji, received a curt letter from his local office in the Pyrénées region telling him that he was no longer entitled to cover. “It was a bit of a shock,” Mr Mochan told The Times.

The Department of Health said that it was not aware of the details of the way that France was implementing its law, passed last year to prevent resident foreigners without means from imposing a burden on the French national health service. Short-term visitors are covered by their home states.

The change most affects Britons and other Europeans who have chosen France for early retirement and have until now been entitled to the basic French cover once their home-based benefits run out. These are covered by E106 forms, which entitle the holder to two years of cover abroad.

Last year Britain issued 6,000 E106 forms to people taking early retirement and heading to other EU states. More than 100,000 Britons are estimated to have retired to France in recent years. The new French rules require foreigners to take out private insurance if they do not have cover through their home state or through contributing at work to the French system. After retirement age, benefits in France are financed by the home country’s national insurance system.

Expatriate groups called for calm. “My message is don’t panic. We shall wait to see what the [British] Government comes up with,” said Alastair Ross, head of the British Association in the Var, the département around the Mediterranean port of Toulon.

“One or two people have run into trouble but at this stage it is not yet a problem.”

Mr Ross voiced understanding for the French position. “An awful lot of British people turn up here with no jobs and no money and think they can just stay on like that.”

There was, he added a “slight hardening of attitudes among elements of the French civil service because of Britons who abused the system here.”

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