And you'd have people becoming a burden on a state where they had never contributed.... The rules are intend to ensure the does not happen.

I had wondered about the number of people retiring to Ireland for:
- Electricity
- Heating fuel
- Telephone
- TV licence
- Public Travel

They estimate about 7k per year retire to Ireland, without having a connection to Ireland.

What federal law did they mention?

Is it possible they are getting mixed up and treating the UK as EU/EFTA?

According to this

https://www.bag.admin.ch/bag/en/home...m-ausland.html

...recipients of a Swiss pension resident in an EU/EFTA country must take out Swiss health insurance. If they live outside the EU/EFTA, they must take out health insurance, not in Switzerland, but in their country of residence.


The same page also states:

Persons who do not wish to take out Swiss health insurance must submit an application for exemption to the Common Institution under the KVG in Olten within three months of receiving their first pension payment or moving to an EU country (no such deadline applies for Spain).

Well, that is the question post-Brexit. Is the UK considered the same as an EU/EFTA country or not now? Sorry, but I can't wade through 73 pages of legalise to find out (new Swiss/UK agreement linked earlier in the thread).

See previous post from aSwissInTheUS:

https://www.englishforum.ch/3440389-post11.html

So, if you have a vested interest in the topic (which I don‘t), looks like you‘ll need to do the digging yourself.

So I downloaded this document entitled "Information about Brexit regarding social health insurance" but it's only in German and they seem to have uploaded an image so I can't copy/paste the text to translate it....

If anyone here has better German than me and would be kind enough to read + post any key points it would be appreciated!

https://www.bag.admin.ch/dam/bag/de/...020-brexit.pdf

According to page 7 of 73 - article 6 (4b) - of the convention on social security coordination between Switzerland and the UK, the convention does not apply to social and medical assistance

https://www.bsv.admin.ch/dam/bsv/en/...ublication.pdf

Thanks for the feedback and the links I will take a read.

I have only worked in Switzerland since 2015 so the pension is very small
The health insurance payments are a hundred Francs more than the pension a month, so not enough to live on.
I have 42 years UK NI contributions, so I would assume that the Health Insurance issue should be taken care of in UK.
I think filling the Exemption form will be the tester.
Has anyone filled in this form and gained an exemption?
Do you need to say you are retiring or moving back to carry on working?

I am of the opinion that I will apply for the exemption with KVG, but I will not be retiring so just leaving Switzerland.
I will post the outcome

Thanks again

SWICA did not mention any specific Federal Law, just referred to one in an email and sent the Health Insurance application form and hiked the price up.
I tried the Embassy in Bern but they said to go to the Gov website, that mainly deals with people moving to Switzerland not returning.

Have you challenged Swica to clarify why they are holding this position? The links and materials posted here might help.

Well if you have 42 years contributions in the UK, then even with the old rules you should not have to pay Swiss insurance as the country that pays the biggest portion of the first pillar is also responsible for your healthcare - even if you stayed in Switzerland.

Sound like you have been talking to someone that really is not up to date on this stuff.

Please come back and let us know as it is a top of interest to a lot of people.

With me it's clear I have one year in Ireland versus 39 in Switzerland, so I don't have any change to get an exemption.

__________________
"There is no passion to be found playing small - in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living." - Nelson Mandela

Now I have a bit more information I will ask SWICA the specific Article under Federal Law and the Bi-Lateral agreement they are referring to.

I will also contact KVG regarding the Exemption process.

Please report back, it is a very interesting and important question. Thanks.

Secondary question to that is do you have 42 years of regular Class 1 UK contributions or are some Class 2?

I - I guess like a number of us on here - have 40-odd years of UK contributions but the majority are Class 2 while resident here! This would put the UK years above any other country for me!

The BAG wording also makes me wonder about the situation if your main pension comes from Liechtenstein. Last I checked, their health insurance is a bit cheaper than this side of the border but they put a number of hurdles in place to make it unattractive to non-FL residents. Edit - found the answer to this one - it's Switzerland.

__________________
I refuse to answer that question on the grounds that I don't know the answer

I greatly appreciate the debate as I am planning ahead on this very topic towards retiring in the EU in the future. Can I please ask if you have any sources for this?

Of course the Swiss websites referenced here all clearly state that if you are receiving a Swiss pension but living in another EU country then Swiss health insurance applies...BUT perhaps this applies only if someone is receiving one pension (from Switzerland)?

I cannot find any Swiss sources covering the scenario of healthcare provision when receiving multiple state pensions from different EU countries...

For example, according to the below link if you receive a pension from the EU country where you live: you and your family are covered by that country's health insurance system — even if you are also receiving pensions from other countries. Wouldn't this same rule also apply to the Switzerland + Ireland?

: https://europa.eu/youreurope/citizen...r/index_en.htm
(Pensioner section)

Unfortunately I deleted the links some time ago on one of my mad clean up sessions. What you stated is correct in that you don't have to pay if you can get accepted into the healthcare system of the other country in writing. But the HSE in Ireland refused point blank to accept me and it is understandable - I have contributed nothing in Ireland for over 40 years.

(Apologies to the OP, as this is not about moving to the UK but about the EU.)
I looked into this a while ago, as I'm about to retire and thinking of moving to Portugal. According to this document, it depends what EU country you move to - see page 13. As a retired person in Portugal, one can choose where to have health coverage.
https://www.ahv-iv.ch/p/880.e

Likewise apologies to the OP for hijacking...but having the answer to both retiring in the EU and the UK in one place would be helpful!

Page 8 on the document you shared states:

"The AFMP and the EFTA Convention does not apply to individuals who are neither Swiss nationals nor citizens of an EU or EFTA member state (except for their family members or surviving dependents – see above). These individuals remain subject to the bilateral social security agreements concluded between the two countries concerned."

.....do you think this means different rules would apply if retiring to Portugal (or another EU country) as a Brit vs. being an EU/Swiss national?

Well for Portugal it states you must show adequate health insurance before you can apply for a resident permit

But they also have an option to actually transfer your credits from other stat systems an receive an actual Portuguese pension, which would mean Switzerland would no longer be responsible for your healthcare. But how then can you show adequate health insurance in order to register, while receiving their state pension?

It seems to me that this whole healthcare in retirement is not fully thought out and that you need to be very careful to make sure you don’t fall through the cracks. I think I’d probably pay the Swiss insurance at least for the first few years until I was absolutely sure that I was happy to be permanently based where ever I decided to go.

__________________
"There is no passion to be found playing small - in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living." - Nelson Mandela

Perhaps not a good idea to mix it all up on this thread.

This is about moving from CH to UK, which is NON-EU. Best to move stuff about CH to EU to another thread. It is complicated enough!

A lot of the replies on this thread relate to countries other than the UK and the thread title is very generic and not uk specific so I think it’s fine as it is.