Hello everyone,

I am about to decide, whether to move to Switzerland with my whole family at the beginning of the next year - I got a quite good job offer in Bern. However, I have some doubts, as I am afraid of my child in terms of medical things. Our boy is now almost three years and for now, there are no big problems, but he has a bad medical history, as he was born as a preemie in the 32nd week and only 940 g weight and scored only 3 APGAR points upon birth. After that we had a couple of problems (with lungs for example), but for now on, he actually recovered from all this stuff.

The problem is, that we are afraid, that no insurance company will give us a supplementary insurance - I know, that the basic insurance covers all necessary treatment etc. but I would be glad to have a supplementary one, especially for the kid.

Are there any people with experiences regarding supplementary insurances for kids?

The basic covers all the medical problems. The supplementary covers ambulances, special shoes, teeth straightening etc. which can sometimes be claimed from the government invalid insurance (But I think you have to be born here to claim that way).

Try sending an e-mail to Jenny, but she is very busy at this time of the year, http://www.englishforum.ch/members/610-jenny.html

I have no direct experience. But knowing the field quite well, it would depend a lot on what kind of supplemental coverage you are looking for. Do you want dental coverage, nicer rooms or alternative medicine etc.

Supplementary insurance only makes sense when you know exactly what you want.

This is not true. But it is true that it is not an easy benefit to obtain. Only rely on this as your last resort.

The only experience I have regarding supplementary insurance is that we currently have it for our son (born here so arranged prior to his birth) but have been informed that once the 5 year contract is up it will probably not be renewed due to the fact that he has developmental delay. This despite the fact that so far we have not even, per year, claimed for him more than we have paid out in respect of basic insurance payments alone .. so why this is, we are totally bemused.

As I understand it, supplementary also covers the ability to use hospitals all over CH and not just in Canton of residence. This could be the most useful part of it if you are seeking a particular specialist.

Check with a specialist. It's a minefield.

I would say, I would for example want the option "Halb-Privat" for hospitals, as well as dental coverage. I know it may depend and vary among different insurance companies. I even spoke to some of them on the phone, but they always say "it depends" and "you should submit a request first". Therefore I am just asking about your knowledge in this area or experiences.

This is a very useful info, thanks for your reply. Our son has a little developmental delay (in the terms, that he speaks only a few words although he is almost 3 years old and, for example, he still doesn't manage to eat with cutlery by himself - only with hands etc.).
So as I see I can expect that we rather don't have chance for supplementary insurance. Especially after reading this article: http://www.ktipp.ch/themen/beitrag/1...ind_willkommen

Basic and supplementary coverage are, basically, two separate things. The amount of money you pay to the former has no relation to the one you get from the latter. Plus, you can have your supplemental coverage froma another insurer.

Per january 1st 2012 you can in fact choose the hospital (if it is on the hospital list) in whatever canton you want. The only thing is that if you choose a hospital in pricier canton, you will have to pay the difference yourself.

This basically means that in cantons with many hospitals and high-end hospitals (university hospitals for complicated treatments) this supplemental insurance does not make sense any more, especially, if the canton is one of the pricey ones. So basically, this coverage is useless if you live in the cantons of Bern, Zürich, Basel, Vaud, Geneve.


That is why we can not really answer these questions. You may get dental coverage with no problems, but not Halb-Privat.

Thank you very much for this extra information. This has been the point of main concern for me regarding loss of supplementary cover as from next year we will be in a small canton with not much choice in major healthcare.