If you have a private international insurance, check where you can go to get treatment. There might only be specific private establishments where your insurer will cover your treatment.
How to choose
Most doctors and hospitals have an agreement with the Social security (conventionné), which means that the fees are charged at standard rates. Check whether the health professional or organization is conventionné before or at your first visit (private clinics will probably not be in this group), otherwise the refunds from social security will be lower than normal. In this case, even additional private insurance (mutuelle) may not cover them completely.
A good source of doctors and medical centres is the yellow pages directory (in French only).
Apointments
All appointments are made by phone. For a generalist, it should be usually made between one and three days in advance, for a specialist up to two weeks. For special treatment in public hospitals the waiting time can be much longer, even a few months.
For up-to-date news regarding medical care in France, visit our website on expatriate healthcare.