Hello All,

Can somebody tell me if this UK Health Insurance Product would be Valid with the Swiss Authorities?

Its Axa International Health Cover (Premium package), the cover is roughly 50% less in cost than all equivalent cover from Sympany, Zurich... (Strangely enought all the Basel Stadt prices are roughly the same 420 ch per month)

So where can i get a difinitive answer if its accepted or not? is it the AHV that decide this?

Thanks......

It's up to the Canton but it's unlikely to be accepted. See this.

99% sure they won't, I have BUPA international, one of the reasons they did not accept as it does not cover child birth (I am male). So now I pay for BUPA & Swiss Insurance

I have found nothing on the market that is acceptable.

Probably a nice little cartel going on in Switzerland.

Oh goodness... thanks for this post. I'm trying to get around paying for expensive Swiss health insurance and was looking into getting BUPA for this reason because it has worked for some people. But upon seeing your hilarious, yet dreadfully disappointing, post I guess I won't go that route.

Suck it up and purchase insurance, I suppose...

Unless you're only here for the short term (read 6 months permits) and can get the canton to make an exception your out of luck.

I guess it's to stop foreign companies offering better prices and allowing them to pick and choose their customers leaving the swiss companies who are forced to cover everyone, whether they want to or not, holding all the "less desirable" customers. Makes sense unfortunately.

What would happen to you if, in the first month, you were diagnosed with cancer? Your travel medical insurance has a fixed limit, and they will not pay above that level. Your foreign EHIC health card is only meant for emergencies. So either the Swiss tax payer steps in and pays for your treatment, or we watch you die horribly in pain. Everyone working here is able to, and must, buy Swiss health insurance.

The exception I stated (read which I received) was for full health insurance which agreed to cover the majority of issues (in fact, my old cover covered a lot more than my current basic Swiss cover).

I don't think that they accept travel insurance except for tourists

It's law to get basic health insurance from a swiss insurer as I am sure it has been pointed out.

My family is currently exempted from this and I have Bupa International. This is because my wife is pregnant and due to give birth soon. We get a higher standard of care than we would with a Swiss insurance because you cannot claim for things like private rooms etc during pregnancies unless you have been in the insurance here for 12 months. We have not been here that long. We got the exception from the Gemeinde and it will last until one month past the due date and then we have to get the Swiss insurances.

Happy to have saved five months of payments to be honest....

Funny thing - the woman from Swica put us down for all the various options when we had moved here and before we had formally established the exemption with the gemeinde. She was quite insistent that we would need the basic insurance anyway even if we did not take the full options. She was quite wrong - we are fully exempt until February.