Radical new health care reforms introduced by president Sarkozy mean that many Britons in France will lose their right to free healthcare.

The reforms affect those Britons and people from other countries within the EU that have taken early retirement, Sarkozy has said that those who retire under the age of 65 should not be able to benefit from free state healthcare. As a result many British expats have received letters from their social security offices warning them that their entitlement to free healthcare will finish before the end of September 07.

Until now those Britons who've taken up early retirement in France are covered for the first two years by their E106 forms after which time under the previous French system they automatically became resident and were entitled to free basic French health cover.

In a speech made during his election campaign Mr Sarkozy 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.

Larry Fulton, the chief executive of Exclusive Healthcare, a company which specialises in providing health cover for British expats in France, said that he had received hundreds of worried calls. He warned retired Britons that they could end up having to pay as much as £2,350 a year each for health insurance and "excess" charges of £80 per claim.

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