Hi there,

I understand that swisscare is very famous amongst researchers, students etc but they also offer health insurance for people who are not students. Their prices seem quite decent and I am thinking of buying it but as I am not a student I am wondering if the canton of Basel-Stadt will recognize it as legit health insurance.Has anyone faced any problems with swisscare health insurance?

I think you will find that you wont get coverage if you are not a student..maybe you have old information ?

For people who are not students and not couple of a student, they don't cover. According to my own experience, swisscare's services are somehow at least doubtable. For example, I could never get through their hotline and got quite slow to or even no reply when I asked them questions by email. Maybe they just prefer letters send by post which I do not like.
The main advantage is their price, but I am still not sure if their coverages are really equal to swiss basic insurance as they claim in their website.

You can get coverage when you're a researcher in CH, as they mention on their website. I know a few people that have their health insurance with one of these cheaper insurances (not sure whether it was swisscare or another one) and they have been pretty satisfied with the service. The basic insurance is the same than any other swiss healthcare provider offers. Most of swisscare costumers are young(er) people, fewer chronic diseases, that's probably the reasion why they can offer the low rates.

Hi, by my own experience I can confirm that Swisscare covers all that what is covered by the Swiss law and I never had any problems.

Also I confirm lots of treads here that Swisscare is very good and popular.

However do you know a company who works perfectly and who all customers are happy ?

I was by the competitor of Swisscare who is the C S S although they are a big company and I had lots of troubles with them during my maternity. See my other treads.

Know that Swisscare is the only one who covers integrally the basic insurance + hospital outside of the canton without any medical questioner.

They have advantages and also disadvantage but compared to other companies, the disadvantages are very few compared to the price and service that they provide.

Also the health authorities by the cantons informed me that they cover mandatorily all the benefits of the health insurance law KVG and that they never had any problems nor with hospitals or with doctors.

I often called them for general information as I'm often give health insurance information on this forum. And I never had any major problems with their phone service. But know that in Switzerland, there are office hours who are not the same as in our home countries.

I can recommend Swisscare aswell as C S S (although I had problems with C S S). But they are the only two cheap student insurance companies who offers integrally the KVG (swiss law). Advantage for Swisscare = administratively (online website application) most efficient as C S S ( paper handling).

However lots of friends of me or other students are surprised because they think that everything is covered in the Swiss law insurance KVG.

Sorry, but the law covers what is in the law and no more... This is the reality who often we as student not understand.

This has nothing to do with Swisscare or another company.

It's the law in Switzerand.

Swisscare claims/customer service is absolutely THE WORST I have ever experienced. I have been trying to get preauthorization for a surgery, and have been back and forth between Swisscare and the hospital (which is a smaller hospital that has never heard of SwissCare) for three weeks. After a desperate phone call last week in which I begged them to simply call my hospital directly, and the person on the other end of the line said she would do so and then write me back, I heard nothing. So I called this week to follow up, only to find that absolutely nothing had been noted in my file, and I had to reexplain the whole situation for the twentieth time. The best part is that then, the woman said "hold on" and acted like she was going to check on something, only to transfer me to someone else who answered simply with "Hello? Who are you? what do you want?". Explanation take # 21. This ended with me in tears and the woman on the line angrily yelling at me, even though I never so much as raised my voice. How dearly I wish I could switch to a new company.

apart from services and premium rates always check for the insurance's financial coverage.
Just like you wouldn't want to bring your money to a bank with insufficiant capital resources..

I might have time to skim through the net later and post a website which provides exactly this information.