I will sadly be leaving Switzerland to retire , I have been in Basel since 2015.
I have applied and will receive my Swiss Pension - Pillar 1 pension in November 2022.
I am a UK citizen with a UK passport. I have the letter of de-registration.

I contacted SWICA to cancel my health insurance, but they say I have to continue to pay. I cannot find any reference to this Federal Law they refer to.
The Health Insurance premiums from SWICA are higher than the pension payments.

They did provide a link to apply for an exemption to KVG

https://www.kvg.org/en/contact/

Does anyone know what the criteria are when applying for an exemption?
Do you need to be retired, have a job in UK, full UK NI contributions etc.

Thank you

What are their arguments?

That's what I found in the Internet:

Thank you for the quick reply.
This is from the email from SWICA

Thank you for your email. After conversation with our responsible department your insurance has to continue with us as long as you receive the AHV in Switzerland. The private rent in the UK is not an exemption from the health insurance law. To get an exemption from the health insurance law in Switzerland you have to ask the department Gemeinsame Einrichtung KVG, here you receive the link to contact:
https://www.kvg.org/en/contact/
After you receive the exemption you can send us the confirmation and we can finish your insurance with us.

They also mention a Federal Law but cannot find any reference to it.

Don‘t know about the ins -and outs with UK citizenship, but here a link in English that explains what is needed. Boiled down in your case it seems:

„If you plan to move after you retire, you must retain your health insurance in Switzerland. However, if you worked outside of Switzerland for a time and also receive a pension from that country, then you must also be insured in that country. But even in this case, there are also countries in which the right to insurance options applies.“

https://www.helsana.ch/en/individual...fe-events.html

Must be mentioned somewhere in the Social security agreement between CH and UK: https://www.bsv.admin.ch/bsv/en/home...nt/brexit.html

Yeah I'm pretty sure this is true. But the payments when living abroad are lower than if you are living in Switzerland.

I wonder if you can get around this by moving back a year or two before retirement age?

According to that Helsana page

"Moving to a non-EU/EFTA country
If you move to a non-EU or non-EFTA country, then you must take out insurance in that country. If you continue to maintain a residence in Switzerland as well, then you can keep your Swiss insurance."

So things should have changed post-Brexit??

What‘s true?

Excuse my complete ignorance: is the UK EU or EFTA or none-of this when it comes to these agreements?

That if you leave Switzerland to retire in another country, you have to maintain Swiss health insurance. Not sure if it only applies to EU countries though.

AFAIK the new CH-UK social security agreement foresees the same rules as the agreement between the EFTA countries and the EU. But for more details you have to read the CH-UK agreement yourself.

I wonder if you could get around it by moving to a country without an agreement, then moving after a short time to the U.K.?

When you leave Switzerland you will have to close your bank account(s) here. How will you pay you pay SWICA? And if you don’t pay them how will they collect the money??

BAG info on it.

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

I've been reading once on this topic. Two things from my memory:


1. When retiring in Germany, Italy, France you can choose to pay the Swiss insurance or subscribe to the local system.


2. (though my memory faded a bit, so not 100% sure) If you've worked more years in EU than in CH, you won't have to pay for CH health insurance living in EU on retirement.

Interested in this as well since hubby retires in March and we plan to move back to the UK later in the year.

Registered with the local surgery on our last visit and no one mentioned anything, but that doesn't really surprise me.

I have vague recollections of something - I assume it might be the Federal law side - that whether you have to continue to pay Swiss health insurance depends on how long you worked in each country. Or it could be who pays you the higher pension.

Also - while in Switzerland men retire at 65, in the UK it's not until 66 so will he be considered retired or not? It's all very

But how does it work in practice? Some EU countries do not have such model like franchise, co-pay etc.

For example polish doctors won't know anything about swiss health insurance. Do I pay the bill in full, then submit to swiss insurance for refund? That's total PITA I would say...

I researched this about 18 months ago, in respect of Ireland and as far as I know the "mind the gap" agreements from BREXIT maintain the status quo:

- Only one pension administration can be responsible for your benefits and rights and that is the one in the country where you hit retirement in. It is a one time decision and no matter where you go there after you remain their responsibility.

- Healthcare is the responsibility of the state that pays the largest portion of your state pension. Again this is a one time decision.

So this means that even if you left Switzerland say 5 years before retiring and returned to the UK, you'd still be stuck paying Swiss health insurance, as the majority of your pension would come from Switzerland.

To avoid having to pay Swiss health insurance you need confirmation from the healthcare system in the other state confirming that they will take responsibility for your healthcare. And this is were I got rejected. The Irish HEA (=NHS) refused point blank to issue such an undertaking. Yes, they were fully aware of the agreement and no they'd would not accept me - even political persuasion from members of the current government had no effect.

In Ireland and the UK it is pretty easy to register with a doctor etc. especially if you are Irish/British.... and possibly even get avail of the free services so long as nobody does any checking. But try to make it official so you can avoid paying Swiss insurance is another matter.

__________________
"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

There is an office in Olten that takes care of it and there are different arrangements depending which member state you retire to.

And FYI, it covers much more that just health insurance. For instance in Ireland all residents of pension age are entitled to winter free fuel allowances, free public transport etc... and the Olten guys deal with all that stuff as well if you retire to Ireland.

From an admin point of view it is a pain, but from the pensioner's point of view only having to deal with a single office is easier.

Think about it. If you could stop paying your health insurance once retired, by moving to another county, then everyone would move and there would not be any pensioners in Switzerland.