As I'm living in Switzerland for almost 3 months I've applied for an health insurance.

I've just received a bill from my health insurance company. The thing is they're charging my insurance since the beggining of my B permit. So i was almost 3 months without insurance and they want that i pay that.

It makes no sense!

Anyone knows if it's mandatory to pay this because i don't really want to!

Yes, mandatory unless you can show the Swiss authorities that you had some other insurance that covered you during that time (and they accept it).

Your mandatory health insurance starts from the day of your permit. You were not without insurance - you got it retroactively. Yes it's mandatory. You have to pay.

(If you take out private top-up insurance also, that should not be backdated.)

Does the mandatory insurance start from the day you receive your permit; or from the day you apply? I was told I had 3 months until after my permit was issued to purchase insurance. I should have my B permit in about 2 weeks, for now I just have a piece of paper that says I'm in process.

It's from your date of entry, ie in no case later than the date you apply.

And unless you can get your health insurance company to agree, your insurance coverage starts from the first day of the month that you enter. E.g., I entered July 28, my insurance started July 1. #lame

But, you have 90 days from your date of entry. In our case, the canton sent reminder forms once a month.

I got my working permit on September 1, 2010 but at that time I still had valid insurance from my country until Oct 2010. I told the insurance that I do not want it from Sept 1st but from Nov 1st. They did not mind but I was getting letters in Sept and Oct from the Gemeinde that I should present a proof of insurance. I went to Gemeinde and I explained the situation and they agreed. They did tell me that it is not the way but they were really nice.
Try and talk to your Gemeinde. Maybe they can help.

I think you have to have it from the first day you start work OR after 3 months here ( whichever is earliest ).

As others have said, health insurance is mandatory from the start of your permit. The three months given before you sign up is not 'three months during which time you don't have to have insurance', it is 'three months for you to shop around and find a deal you are happy with, which will then be back-dated'.

I don't know where you come from, but this is the way health care works in Switzerland. The law says that everyone living in Switzerland on a long-term basis has to have health insurance, and it is dated from the beginning of their stay. The reasoning is that had you required treatment early on, you would want that treatment to be covered - wouldn't you? And at least you (hopefully) chose a insurer you were happy with... had you not organised it it would have been organised for you, and from what I understand when that happens the person is not always signed up to the best deal!

I have no idea if part of your complaint is due to financial difficulty. If you are on a low income, there are health insurance subsidies available. You would need to talk to social services (in Vaud, the benchmark for a single person is someone has a maximum revenue of 34,500 chf per year). If you don't qualify for this but you're struggling to pay three months premiums in one go (a bill which from the sound of your post you were not expecting), try ringing your insurance provider. They may be able to arrange a payment plan so you can spread the extra cost over several months.

It may seem like an unfair bill to you, but it is the way the system works here. And the fact is that if someone really cannot afford health insurance, the state will pay - premiums, franchise, 10%... so there is at least no discrimination on financial grounds.

If you have a European Health Insurance Card (EHIC), you will not have to pay for the first 3 months retroactively.

Hi Lionheart, can you provide a source for that, for example a webpage?

Bearing in mind that other people apart from the OP will read what you have said and may try and act on it, an external reference would be very helpful. Apart from anything else, this would mean that they can go to their health insurance providers and say 'It says here (insert source) that I do not have to pay the first 3 months of my health insurance because I have an EHIC.'

While we all love EF and find it very helpful, I don't think an insurance company is going to just accept the argument that 'Someone on EF said that...'.

Not true in most cases.
Unless you're on a secondment, or a student or academic researcher, you have to have Swiss insurance. See point 4 on this page. EHIC won't cut it, and besides, you'd still have to be registered in your home country and paying your insurance there (unless you're from the UK or Ireland where the taxpayer picks up you bill).

It can be worth asking around about. We were able to find insurance from our home country that the canton accepted in lieu of swiss insurance. Of course there were documents that needed to be filled in and approved, but they were accepted in the end. I am not sure if this is because we have a B Student Permit and a B Family Regroupment though. It saves us thousands.

What country are you from, the don't accept UK insurance but might accept some German ones.

Vhl22: If you google EHIC there are many useful sites about the purpose and usability of this card like http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=509&langId=en. I know by my own experience and I know people from other European countries that did not have to pay the 3 months retroactively because they had EHIC. I only had to send the insurance company a copy of my EHIC.

tom tulpe: This is an informative link. Yes, naturally the EHIC needs to be valid, i.o.w. having residency in the issuing country where there is public health insurance or I assume (since I have not used this option myself) a valid private health insurance from where they received the EHIC.

Thank you for your helpful answers!

It´s not a problem of money, I was just wondering if i really had to pay this and it wasn´t a "scheme" from my insurance company as I´m new in Switzerland

Once your living in Switzerland your no longer resident in your former country so any EHIC card is no longer valid. Any use of a previously issued card would be fraud!

Please give evidence of this. The EHIC is for emergencies only as a visitor. We moved from UK on the 23rd of March and had to pay retro-actively from 1st of March. You have 3 months to organise health cover but must pay from day one of month of arrival.

Hi,

Actually I found that link when searching for information to back up what you had said. It clearly says: There is nothing there saying that the first three months of a permanent stay in Switzerland are also covered by the EHIC.

You managed to do this: great! But as I (and others) have said, it would be helpful to have a link that clearly states that this is something that all EHIC holders can do (or that states the specific circumstances when this can be used). We know very little about your circumstances, and it might be you profited from a minor loophole, a particular insurance company's policy etc. If this were to be the case, it would be a shame if someone else thought they could do the same, and then found out differently the hard way.

Basic health insurance is obligatory in Switzerland, even though the health insurance companies are private and not state run. That's why you received a bill from the date you registered as a resident in the country, as you were covered from that date.
Whilst the authorities don't usually do much in the way of checks, they won't accept health insurance from non-recognized companies and that means in general non-Swiss companies. They might accept such a policy for short term stays, but not for permanent residents.
The EHIC is only valid for emergency treatment and non-residents.