Thanks everyone for posting in this thread: saved me many phone calls to my Kreisboro. Given point 6 in the link provided, it looks like the retro-active charges are to actually help you in the event you did require medical care before officially "enrolling" in a plan.

I must have just got lucky then. When I came over for a year contact in 2000 I never bothered about it, and it was at least another year after my wife had joined me here a year later that we actually got round to getting health insurance. And we certainly were not charged retrospective premiums for all that 'uninsured' time.

I had exactly same situation and when I called the health insurance office some lady explained in a very rude way that I have to pay it and they won't be waiting forever for the money.

There was no requirement for insurance in 2000, I had BUPA international for my first 6 years here, the law changed sometime after that. I argued for a couple more years before finally taking out Swiss insurance, which started the month I took out the policy. Things have changed, not for the better!

OIC. So when they started telling me I needed it was the point at which it became compulsory. Makes sense, and explains why the agency I was with hadn't made me get some in the first place.

A great deal depended on your Geminde, if they could not speak English well showing them a BUPA policy would have worked in the Early days! It was only sometime after living in Zurich where they spoke perfect English did I get any grief & was able to stall for seceral years without issue.

It's only more recently that it's become so regulated

Don't get your knickers in a twist. No one is advocating fraud here, just paying what you should and not a penny more. If an insurance company accepts that one can use a valid EHIC for the first 3 months of a stay in Switzerland you can be assured it is not out of pure kindness. I find it hard to believe that any company would give up hundreds of CHF for each customer without being certain that the person had the law on their side.

Your statement about not being a resident in your former country is simply wrong. I personally know many people who work in Switzerland and are residents in their home countries.

Look, I am not qualified to give you legal advice about this. If I come across any more clarifying information I will post it. All I can say now is that I know of multiple cases where a valid EHIC was accepted as cover for the first 3 months retroactively. That is why I mentioned it in this forum, hoping this fact can save someone a few hundred CHF. I do not see the shame in checking if this applies to you. If it does not apply, you pay the 3 months retroactively just like you would if you didn't check.