After somewhat contentious negotiations with Swiss Life, our carrier, which lasted a month, your Insurance Committee is pleased to report that premium rises for 2014 have been limited to a 4% increase (not counting increases resulting from an age-group change).

Negotiations started with Swiss Life insisting on a 12% increase, later reduced to 8%. It justified this rise by the two expensive hospitalizations incurred by two programs during the current period and by the growing average age of our insured population.

AARO in turn argued that results in the previous two years did not justify such a large increase. Direct recourse to Swiss Life by your Committee resulted finally in the more moderate increase of 4%.

AARO members are not excessive consumers of medical products and services. However, hospitalization and medical costs are rising at rates greater than inflation in Europe and you should be mindful of this and remember that your behavior can affect the overall health of the programs.

Sincerely,
AARO Insurance Committee

An AARO team of specialists will present recent changes in French law and relate these to the situation of Americans resident in France.

Date: Monday, December 9
Time: 18h30
Place: Forum 104, 104 rue de Vaugirard, Paris 75006
Cost: AARO members/family: €10 per person; non-members: €20 (can be credited toward new AARO membership)
Payment: online or check payable to AARO, sent to 34 avenue de New York, 75116 Paris
Deadline: Friday, December 6.

Important news: Last week France signed the FATCA Inter-Governmental Agreement with the United States to implement FATCA in France. The first part of the seminar will be devoted to explaining the significance of this signing. 

For more information, please visit AARO Board Member Victoria Ferauge's blog on this subject at: http://thefranco-americanflophouse.blogspot.fr/2013/11/a-review-of-franceus-fatca-iga.html

ROBERTA BEARDSLEY came from California with her husband and family in 1969. She taught elementary school in the U.S., English in France and was a partner in a relocation company. She has been a member of the AARO board since the early '90's. She is presently the Nominations Committee Chairperson.

Annual General Meeting ”“ April 24

The AARO Annual General Meeting will be held from 18h30-20h30 on April 24th in Paris.

Information to follow to members by email.

Will residents abroad have to subscribe or pay a tax?

Now that the Supreme Court has ruled that Obama's health care law is constitutional, you may have asked yourself: what is the status of AARO members who live outside the US and more particularly will they have to sign up for health care coverage in the US or risk having to pay the tax on non-subscribers, if they don't?

When AARO and its partners attended Overseas Americans Week in 2010, this question, among others, was on our minds. We pointed out to Congressional staffers that our members, since they don't reside in the US, should be exempt from the requirement to maintain minimal essential coverage there, the more so as we benefit from coverage in the foreign country of our residence. Although the text of the law is several times that of War & Peace, we are pleased to report that it does provide relief from the requirement of minimal essential coverage for 'individuals residing outside the US or in a Territory thereof'. {See Section 1501(f)(4)}

The exemption operates in a novel way, 'treating an individual as having minimal essential coverage for any month during which he/she has his/her tax home in a foreign country and who (being a citizen of the US) (a) establishes that he/she is a bona fide resident in a foreign country for an uninterrupted period which includes a taxable year, or (b) is present in a foreign country for at least 330 full days in such a period.

This 'treatment' is illusory (since a foreign resident won't really have coverage in the US) but it seems clear enough that he/she will not have to pay the tax imposed on those who opt out of the system in any qualifying month of residence abroad. Problems of interpretation can arise, however, for individuals starting or ending an expatriation, who have not yet qualified as a foreign tax resident or who have, but whose status changes upon return to the US.

On August 1, 2013, HR 597 was introduced in the House of Representatives to create a bipartisan federal commission to study the impact of government policies on Americans living and working abroad and to make recommendations to Congress to improve drafting and implementation of policies concerning the overseas population.

Americans Abroad Caucus Chair Carolyn Maloney of New York re-introduced her earlier bill because, according to Congresswoman Maloney, the concerns of overseas Americans "about how their government interacts with them deserve to be heard  and paid attention to here in Washington."

AARO salutes this renewed effort to examine the impact of U.S. legislation on the overseas community and seek ways to "ensure awareness, coordination, and integration of the activities of the federal government relating to Americans abroad."

We very much hope that Congresswoman Maloney will reintroduce her bill yet again in the 114th Congress and will inform our members and encourage them to urge their legislators to support it.  As they say, watch this space...

The Federal Post Card Application (FPCA) is the document with which military and overseas voters register to vote and request their ballots.

A new version of this form was introduced for the 2012 election which raised concerns with many voters. In response to requests from state and local election officials, the new form explicitly asked voters to state whether they “intend to return” to the states or not. Many were unsure of their intent and even more unsure of the implications of their affirmation. In addition, for U.S. citizens born abroad, the notion of “return” did not apply.

The Federal Voting Assistance Program, responsible for military and overseas voting, requested feedback on the newFPCA format and wording and AARO submitted comments ( view comments). 

In a major victory for overseas voter rights, the Pentagon later reinstated website availability of the federal post card application introduced in 2005, thus avoiding a number of problems related to the language on the form introduced in 2011.

Following the 2012 election, AARO and its partner organizations were contacted by the FVAP to comment on yet another revision of the FPCA.  In addition to other improvements, the version to be used for the 2014 election replaces the concept of "no intent to return" by the notion of "uncertainty", with which many overseas voters should be much more comfortable.

(updated December 2013)

MICHELE BROTHERS is a US-French New Yorker who has been in Paris since 1985. Michele, who received an MA at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs, worked at Médecins du Monde in Paris, London and in the US. She founded and manages International Connections, an international, inter-cultural consultancy specializing in non-profit and small business marketing. Michèle who co-founded Women in Film France actively participates in arts-oriented, political and humanitarian (Doctors for Global Health) associations. She is co-chair of the Outreach/Membership Committee and is particularly interested in AARO's international development.

MARK CARROLL came to Paris in 1994 for a six-month project, and at the end of it was lucky enough to be asked to stay on. After working his way through IT marketing, finance and auditing positions, he currently specializes in HR process re-engineering. A long-time member of the choir of the American Cathedral, he is also active in the Cathedral's Friday Mission Lunch program. Each fall in support of Les Arts George V and the Cathedral music program, he organizes a concert in tribute to a composer of the Great American Songbook. He is a co-organizer of Paris Urban Adventures on Meetup.com, organizing activities for Paris residents and visitors alike.