hey Guys,

before i left Australia i took out six months of fairly decent and well priced travel insurance which i can keep extending indefinitely.

so my question is... do i actually need to bother with swiss insurance by law or otherwise?

has anyone else done this and run into problems?

thanks

Nic

Health insurance is mandatory. Personal liability recommended. Home insurance recommended. Car mandatory (if you have a car).

So what is your real question?

mmmm mandatory, not a big fan of that word.

Guess that answers the question though.

although... are you sure there's no way around this one?


thanks Lob

I'd say don't work, don't register and don't have a car would get rid of those mandatory insurances

he he

Are you asking if your travel insurance (I assume it includes health coverage) will be adequate to meet the requirement for health insurance in Switzerland? I will be provided health insurance by a non-swiss company for my time in Switzerland so I would hope that insurance would be adequate rather than having to buy additional health insurance in Switzerland. So I think the real question is if you can avoid buying Swiss health insurance if you can prove you have health insurance that covers you in Switzerland from another source. I would assume yes but does anyone know the answer?

actually yes that's exactly what i meant.

very well put.

i've heard of people from other euro countries having insurance from home.

it's make sense that this should be allowed.

travel insurance - fine. Will become questionable if you're resident here, no doubt. Insurance companies are not charities
health insurance will be questionable once you work here and have a job.

I believe you are allowed to have non-CH health insurance for upto 5 years.

Plus if you work more than 8? hours a week most employers give you health insurance for accidents, so your personal insurance just needs to pick up the illness cover.

A friend of a friend ;-) still has a french private health 7.5 years in.

Daniel

We're covered by a non-CH health insurance policy and had to jump through all sorts of hoops (well, my wife's HR dept did) to get this approved. From what I understand, the authorities will look to see if they feel the insurance you have is adequate from their standpoint, not yours. Not sure of what constitutes "adequate" though.

The answer is yes. You do not have to have actual Swiss insurance. Or at least I was able to get out of it. If you send them proof that you are insured, you should be able to get out of it. Keep in mind though that if you are here on a permit, if after three months you have not signed up for insurance they will sign you up for insurance and bill you for it. Which you will be held financially responsible for. You can't just not sign up or send them anything. They will automatically enroll you.

In my experience, the only way you can get away with not having Swiss health insurance is if you are officially employed as an expat (not sure how this is defined, but hey). I'm moved to Switzerland with my fiancé, who was moved by his company, and therefore is expat. As I was taken on locally, my EU insurance (which was more comprehensive than the local swiss insurance) was thoroughly irrelevant.

I fought for a long time on this point, but in the end, I had no option but to take on local insurance.

However, if anyone finds a loop hole for locals, please do let me know, as I'm not particularly impressed by my insurance...

If you're a student, post-doc, post-grad or even a lecturer, this might be of some use (starts post 24, but read in a bit...)
Postdoc tax question
Works out hugely cheaper for our family.

Hmm, possible downer on that scheme...
The departmental secretary's face when I mentioned Swisscare was not encouraging. Apparently, it can cause a lot of trouble and removes some of your rights as a patient. She said it's really not the best option and recommended (as we're young and not likely to keel over any time soon) getting a normal insurance with a large excess/franchise of about CHF2,000. For the three of us it works out as CHF390/month, which is about CHF150 more, but you're better covered.
I'm going to have to start printing cash at this rate...

__________________
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Tradiconsult! http://www.tradiconsult.com/www2/index.php

I've said it a millions times over. They are cheap, good, and hassle free. Accident, CHF 50,000 bill. No problems. Great coverage. There franchise is only CHF 300 if you're under 35.

In fact, the secretary ENAC -TOPO of my labs (EPFL) informed me that TradiConsult is a very bad company in Lausanne with many problems with students and she don't recommend this company. And she said also that I must choose a Swiss mandatory health company with SFr 2500 excess... But the problem is not changed. I paid to much insurance in this way. Friends of me recommend the company Swisscare and t'ill i'm there, until now, i had no major problems with this company. The website is http://www.swisscare.ch.
I think the best way is to choose a company which is cheap and recognized.

See you

Markus, the fact that in two posts and both promote Swisscare - you confirm you are simply a customer?

Your location claims German yet you are using a Swiss ISP. Sniff sniff, my mind tells me.

Hi, I read also the different posts. I have also posted some informations because I and my wife we had problems to find a good and affordable health insurance. We, like some of others on this forum, also find out that Swisscare is a good option. Certainely you can find a high level insurance... but very expensive. With a Swiss state company you have in fact somes of advantages (insurance card accepted in the pharmacies) but the premium is very expensive. More than CHF 300 months and a very high deductible CHF 1500.

TradiConsult has not accepted my girlfriend (now my wife). And the deductible is CHF 1500 for person up to 31 year old (not the case by Swisscare - CHF 300). The website is also not clear, no informations, and very complicated and horrible for navigate. No online application and the page says comming soon since 2 years...

T'ill now, I had never big problems with Swisscare. I had also reimbursment for pregnancy for my wife. The only thing that I can reproach to Swisscare is that the reimbursment was a little bit long. But we always receive all our medical expense. Now, since this year, I read on the website www.swisscare.ch that they have a new reimbursment service in Zurich - Brüttisellen by Medicall (company who works reimbursments for lots of Swiss governement health insurance companies).

You have lots of possibilities accepted in Switzerland and cheap. IHI - Bupa - ACE - Zodiac CSS - Golden Care but I choosed Swisscare which is the most oriented for studies and research, travel...and it's really easy to apply. www.swisscare.ch

But ... if you have money... the best solutions is a Swiss governement company like Helsana - Assura - KPT / CPT.... go on comparis.ch

This is what I promote...

:msntongue :

Right Markus/Barry/whomever you are. Please reveal your links to Swisscare so that we may make a more objective opinion. In various threads you refer to working with them for your student organization but also relate semi-personal experiences with the company. Whilst consistently complaining about other insurance offerings.
Please use 1 user name - you are either Markus or Barry but not both.... Unless you are twins with identical spelling challenges. I refer to 'governement' 't'ill' etc. Will happily post links to other similarly dual personality postings from the 'both' of you......all with the same intention to push Swisscare.

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.......
See my homepage for cheesy Fun.Switzerland.Chat....

BHBT is bang on the money. I am sure Swisscare would not want some misguided individual in their employ souring their reputation. As that's all Barry and Markus have posted about, we have to worry.

At this point, I would trust neither of them ("neither" of "them"?). Says a lot really.