Hi all,

I moved to Switzerland with my family in September. Since the start of October we have been waiting for a particular insurance company to send us our policy.

Finally last week we received it, but they want us to pay from the date we arrived which means I have a large bill for January.

I think this is completely unfair as we were never advised that this would happen. We were worried what we would do if any of us needed to see the doctor as we had no cover.

I have read several posts which say that backdated payments are normal. But I am going to argue with the insurance company so we dont have to pay this massive amount.

Does anybody have any advise or experience which they think may come in useful for my argument?

Really unfair and frustrating, especially after Xmas.

Alex

You are legally obliged to have insurance from the date you arrive, you would have been covered if you or anyone in your family had required treatment from that date and not just from when the policy turned up. Unfortunatley you have no argument & need to pay up.

did they back date it to the first day in the month you arrived i.e. september?

if so, this is normal, as they would have provided cover from the date you arrived.

I think you'll find you are wasting your time contesting it. The fact that you thought you were not covered, doesn't mean that you weren't. Obviously if you had insurance, you cannot claim that you don't have to pay for it. Maybe another time you should ask when a policy becomes valid (or expires).

Ask them if they would let you pay a bit extra each month for the next few months to break down the sum a bit.


Everyone else types faster than I do - but at least we all agree.

+1, it should be no problem to do so at all, just ask them to send you the amount divided by X (whatever number you choose) payments, and they will send the payment slips.

Tom

Hi all,

I arrived in Switzerland in July and took out insurance starting from October. So I skipped paying health insurance for the first 2.5 months here. No one at the insurance company asked me to start paying from July so i didn't volunteer (despite being ready to do so had they asked).

Just a bit of good luck for me i guess.

Kash.

Hi Alex

By all means try talking to your health insurers on the basis one never knows and you could get very lucky but as has been stated, retrospective premium payments are the law. Take a look at this on the comparis.ch website regarding the taking out of mandatory basic health insurance for new arrivals in Switzerland - http://en.comparis.ch/krankenkassen/.../zuzueger.aspx.

Assuming you do not win your argument, then I also agree that asking them if you can pay it off in installments is the best solution.

Good luck.

Hi Kash

I'd agree you were lucky on that and also that nothing happened to you warranting medical attention in the intervening period ... .

Ssssshhhhhh!

Your only hope would be if you happen to also have a good exisiting/overlapping insurance cover from wherever you lived before you came here. BUt it is not a guaranteed hope.

Thanks all,

Does not look like there is much hope for me then. However spreading the payments would help a little.

I will try my luck anyway. We have already had many contact issues and delay issues with this company which do not bode well for the future. At no time were we advised that we have to back date our payments, infact all they told us was that we have 3 months grace and not to worry for their delay.

Alex

I was also told, by an insurance company manager, that one had to have the insurance within a 3 month period of being in Switzerland, so perhaps you will get lucky with that angle. On the other hand, suppose, just suppose that you had an accident before you had received the account - you would have been covered, payments would have been made for your medical bills, but you would still have been liable for the backpayments...... would you have accepted the thousands for your treatment?

If you do decide to fight it, just keep a close eye on the correspendence they send to you regarding the issue. Watch out for the stage where they send the outstanding payment statement to the canton admin office, with the threat of court action. I ended up having to pay an admin cost that was almost as large as the original insurance payment ( It was an insurance that I thought I had cancelled in favour of another, but apparently not....... ) Aaah, it's an interesting learning curve.

Please have a look on Comparis: http://en.comparis.ch/krankenkassen/info/glossar/zuzueger.aspx

1. All you need to know about basic health insurance After having declared your arrival, you will have three months to conclude mandatory basic health insurance. Within this time period, you will be covered from the date of your move to the country until you find an insurer. Premiums for this time must be paid retrospectively. If you miss the deadline, coverage will not start until after conclusion. Administration surcharges will also be imposed for late registration.
This is where you can find information about mandatory basic health insurance

Ok,

It seems I have no choice then. Only myself to blame.

But I will see how far I get with the agent.

Thanks

Alex

I really dont think you are going to get far with the agent, the law is pretty clear on this one. He/she may have been a bit slack/remis by not informing you, but that doesnt really change anything in regards to the beginning date of your insurance
Best thing, as others have said, is to contact your insurance and spread out the payments to ease the pain a little.
Good luck