Hi all,

I am planning to move at the boarder between Germany and Switzerland. I'd like to live in Germany and work in Switzerland.

Any ideas/informations/links about how things work with insurances?

Thanks for your help

Dib:
I'm sure you have reasons for wanting to live in Germany...

Why not just live in Switzerland? Lower tax, simpler all around.
Of course, you need Swiss Health Insurance then...

Hi,

Thanks for your reply!

I know in some ways it would be easier to just live in Switzerland, although some things might be complicated, at least I'd know where to get informations...

The things is that my boyfriend is German and he intends to live and work in Germany. Actually the 1st year he'll be at school, in Germany... So we agreed to stay there. I'm just not too sure about jobs for non german speaking people in this area (black forest). That's why I was more thinking about Basel, which is still quite close.

Thanks anyway

have a look for a thread about living in France and working in Geneva - you might find some information which should largely be very similar to living in Germany and working here.

A Swiss employer will cover you for accident (health coverage). Everything else is down to what's required in your country of residence.

You might find something too if you Google for Toytown Germany?

http://switzerland.angloinfo.com/

This is for the French end of the country, as Lob mentioned

Hello Lob,

I am not clear at all with the insurance in swiss.My German bf is working here in switzerland have a permanent work contract.He is paying for his own insurance by himself, the company is not paying,and I asked him why you have to pay for that,he said that is the law in switzerland not like in Germany.
So, when you said here that the switz company is responsible to pay for the insurance, I am a bit confuse, please could you tell me where to find the good information on internet? are the switz company also responsible to pay for the wife and the kids insurance?
I need to know all this informations.

Thanks

Snowbabe

Swiss employers are obliged to pay for accident insurance for their employees. Health insurance in general is down to the individual.

One reason to live in Germany could be lower rent/property prices?

At least that, plus lower tax(!) is why a lot of people around here commute in from France.

And as for Germany, Freiburg appears to be as attractive as many places in Switzerland - and 50km from Basel.

Good luck, whatever you (OP) do.

While your boyfriend will work in Germany, will you be working in Switzerland?

There are perfectly valid reasons for living on either side of the border. I recently started work in Basel and, after weighing everything up, we decided to live in Germany (I'm just over the border in Lörrach - nice place)

Last month I just went through the whole "what the hell do i do with health insurance" caper. For someone living in Germany and working in Switzerland, there are 4 options regarding health insurance:

1. Compulsory German insurance (Gesetzliche Krankenkasse) - the cost of this cover is dependent on your salary, so if your salary is high enough you could find yourself paying way too much, so you should instead consider...
2. Private German insurance - your income needs to be higher than a certain threshhold to qualify for this. If you qualify, this is generally cheaper than #1. Since it's private cover, you also have more say in what type of cover you want.
3. Swiss insurance - for people living in Switzerland, Swiss cover can be relatively cheap since you can choose to have a higher excess in exchange for a lower premium. That option is not available for people not living in Switzerland; instead you must take a lower excess (maybe the lowest) and therefore pay the higher (highest?) premium.
4. Border-crosser cover (Grenzgänger) - Some companies offer a type of cover that is something of a mix of the above 3 - usually as a deal between two insurance companies (one German, one Swiss). Prices for this sort of cover varies, as does the list of things that you are covered for. This cover can be confusing, since you are then dealing with 2 health systems, but if you're lucky you might be able to find a good one.

In both Switzerland and Germany, health cover is compulsory - but for people in the border areas, this "compulsory" tag is lifted in one country if you take insurance in the other.

If you have cover in one country and you need non-urgent medical treatment, you must get it in that country. For emergencies anywhere in the world, your policy should cover you (make sure you ask)

Note that your Swiss employer is required to cover you for anything that might happen while you are at work.

Hope that helps.

Hi all,

Thanks for your replies.

Dodger, thank you for this very precise informations. At least I know now what's available regarding insurance in this case.

We are thinking of Lörrach as well, as this would be the easiest option for both of us. How is life there?

I like it in Lörrach. There's not much going on there, but Basel is easily within reach. It's clean, the people are friendly, and it's not too expensive.

Possibly, but it can be hard to find anything useful amid most of the crap that gets posted there.