23.09.2007, 17:50
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 | Forum Veteran | | Join Date: May 2007 Location: Blonay
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| Re: Tip for people who want to keep EU health insurance
| Quote: | |  | | | I had an interesting response from BUPA when I asked them to send me the form saying that I had appropriate health insurance through them
they explicitly said in their letter to me that they have had problems in Switzerland, that they were unable to state officially that the benefits that I'm entitled to under their policy are equivalent to those required by Swiss law, and that it depends very much on the Canton. They went on to say something like "you may well need to leave BUPA if this doesn't work - if that happens then its been good to know you" | | | | | BUPA would not be able to confirm that their policy is the equivalent to a normal Swiss Policy because, quite simply, it is not. I am in the process of preparing a new thread with an explanation of how the system works but it’s a very complicated subject.
In brief, the insurance here is provided by about 80 companies who, as far as the basic insurance is concerned, have to operate on a non-profit basis and they are supervised by the Federal authorities. The policy conditions, and benefits (LAMal) they offer are all the same and dictated by law. They contribute to a system that offers policyholders full protection in the event of one getting into problems (which has happened) and to various health programmes. They have to accept everybody irrespective of their state of health and cannot load the premium, impose special conditions, or refuse to renew no matter how expensive they may become.
As you will realise, all this is very different to a BUPA policy where the company can dictate all the conditions and benefits and be able to refuse cover, impose special conditions or load premiums as they see fit.
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