I recently got to wondering about what happens if you are long term ill or incapacitated here as an employee in switzerland.

Heres what I know so far:

According to the information I have from my employer,

a) The first 90 days of illness I am paid full salary (krankentagegeld).
This varies in my company depending on length of service. For example if you are working there longer than ten years, then I would be paid 360 days full salary, which the company calls "grundsalar"
This seems to be a company policy, not a legal requirement.

b) After this my company will pay up to 730 days in total at 80% of my salary. In other words, I would get 90 days full salary and 640 days at 80%
This also seems to be a company policy rather than a legal requirement of the company.

c) After this some kind of mixture between my 1st Saule and some other government benefits should provide approximately 75% of salary.

....

and heres where I am not clear....

If we use 100k chf as a yearly gross salary to make it easy to calculate.

1) On some documents I have from work, it mentions "versicherte lohn" which translates as insured salary. This amount seems to be about 15% lower than actual salary. So 100k salary, 85k versicherte lohn.

Would one receive 100% then 80% then 75% of 100K or 85K?

2) Regarding points a) and b) above, does anyone know the minimum company requirements just out of interest

3) Regarding point c) above, does this 75% payment last indefinitely or does it have a fixed time period. Is there a german term for this?

4) Can one or does anyone here take out private additional salary insurance (income protection insurance) here alongside their health insurance. Is there a german name for this?

5) Lets say hypothetically and just as an example that you are a professional footballer and get your leg hurt and it stops your playing career permanently, and you receive this sickness insurance... are you obliged to take for example a desk job otherwise you will not receive any payments?


If anyone has definitive answers to any of these points rather than conjecture, or any other relevant points to make, it would be interesting to hear them!

__________________
krlock3.

I have a visit from an alternative insurer planned for tonight and intend to ask my questions there. Will report how it goes.

I guess no one here has much of an answer to my questions.

Can only give you some details of a friend that had gone through this. However, search the forum, it has been discussed here and also the swiss federal regs. on the matter.

Basically, under your a), yes it is covered under normal sick leave policy.

Your b) is an optional insurance policy taken out by your employer. You would need to see the details of the insurance contract of your employer and how it would apply to different types of employees. For example, high level managers may have much better coverage than just an average low level employee. Thus the 80% may be the norm, or what your company has for an employee like you, but I know of some that indeed cover more, ie. 90 or 100%.

As for c), this is where you get bascially after 2 years of being sick, the optional insurance runs out. As I understand, there are various social services that could kick in at this point. If still unable to work, AI, ie. being invalid would likely start. This depends on the type of illness/ailment and at what % is your invalidity. Eventually, revenue insertion or basical social welfare may apply as well. I am highly questionable of the 75% figure you mention, as I understand it depends, and thus varies, on a lot on the factors at hand.

Sorry, do not understand what your "versicherte lohn" means.

Af for 4) I think it is possible, but given the other coverages not very common.

As for 5), a loss of use of leg; likely when you get to the point of AI, the compensation for this would be a %, and you would be compensated accordingly. So some people can live without working with say a 20% disability payment, while others could likely find work in a desk job, I think there are a lot of variables that play here.

Keep in mind the swiss have been recently applying more vigour to the use of AI due to many abuses of the system.

I was wondering that if coverage wasn't sufficient from the standard protection, if there was any recommended supplementary insurance products for income protection. I have looked around comparis but found nothing that matches this requirement.

Of course different Companies have different additional coverages in that case. For example, at Groupe Mutuel you can either choose a "daily allowance insurance" which covered in case inability to earn due to an accident or a sickness (http://www.groupemutuel.ch/content/g...ranlieres.html)

or you can choose their "Provista Insurance" which is a lump sum that you can be paid in the case of a disability related to an accident
(http://www.groupemutuel.ch/content/g.../provista.html). Though, I advise you to read first the coverage general conditions.

I am also sure that other companies have different products which cover in the same situation.