I'm with Swica. My understanding is that generally all you will ever pay (in addition to your premiums) is the franchise, then 10% for the next 7000, then nothing. (Except those extras like where it's 200 francs every three years). The wrinkle is that completa top has its own franchise level of 0-600. Not quite sure how that works.

If you get a serious disease or need regular treatment, you might as well drop to lowest franchise. Which you can do 1 or 3 months (I can't remember which!) before year end.

At 50, with Swica, I opted to switch to a model with no age-related increases in premiums. Having had major surgery in my first year in Switzerland, I'm stuck with Swica if I want complementaries! But I've never had any issue with them.

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Click on the link. Think "mildly interesting". Buy ticket.... Be entertained. And enjoy the Basel Weihnachtsmarkt.

I was with them via my employer and in my case it was a very negative experience, not a patient centric approach but rather my impression was that they wanted to protect the employer in case I aimed to take a long medical leave during covid. Luckily after an initial migdiagnose I got thanks to my private insurance a great doctor who found out and fixed my issue. And I say 'thanks' because instead of pressing to reduce costs my provate insurer provided a great assessment on the phone that directed me to the right path. My personal conclusion is that there are other insurers that seem to put the patient first, regardless if the client is a particular or a big corporation: helsana is a very good one to me and I recommend them (but it has detractors too, though). This is my personal experience, perhaps others have a different view.

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Sometimes you gotta say WTF?! It gives you freedom.

I was with Swica but dumped them because they have a franchise on the supplementary insurance (completa top), and no other company I spoke to do this.

I am never sick so I hardly ever use up the deductible on the basic insurance, but I do use the complementary insurance regularly for eye glasses, massages, spa treatments, etc. I cannot remember all the details but I would have needed to spend up to around Fr.600 myself first before they started paying, whereas my current provider paid for these from Fr.0. So this ended up costing me a lot more than other insurers. On the other hand, apparently whatever you claim from the supplementary insurance will also add up to your basic insurance deductible, so you will hit that deductible faster, but as I said, so far I've been lucky enough to never have to use the basic.

From the latest Swica post in my inbox…

from 1 Jan 2023 Completa Top (Swica) will be offered without an excess to adult customers.

The current excess (600sfr adults) will continue to apply to existing customers with Completa Top policy, unless one applies for option without by the beginning of insurance year.

I got the Completa Top on first application at 48 yo, as did our son at 10, husband years later at 53, daughter (now 23) denied at 16 thanks to a psyche who tried her hardest to avoid proper assessments and preferred bowing to pharma’
(she has been med free for 5 years now)

Swica has us in their lair now, for better or worse….

For me, zero excess costs 7.50 a month more..

Eh what, 2009 called and said they want their thread back!

Meanwhile Swica got apps and remote doctor calls... I for one am happy with Swica and I highly recommend to get your children's teeth included as if you start early, you get huge reimbursements for cavities and dental corrections until they are 25 (up to 75% in some cases).

1 massage and you're in the money for the year.

Oh, I just taught my kids how to floss and brush their teeth.

We have had Swica Telmed for the last 10yrs, I have until 23:59 to send off an email and switch the the Provita Pharma model, which according to my local rep when I was in office yesterday, is essentially the same as Telmed as long as doctors on the approved list. I have checked and so far found all who have provided us care.

Switching will save over 2000sfr/year for our family which seems a no-brainer.

Does anyone else have the Provita Medpharm and had issues?

True, you have only a few hours remaining for your notice to get validly received.

However you have one month remaining to decide on next year's insurer, model, franchise, which may be a different one or the same as this year.

we are staying with Swica, the woman yesterday said it was ok to send an email by latest today to change model (granted my confidence in her answers marred by her rough maths, ie cost not 40sfr/month less but 37.17)

Feeling more informed now, a month of higher prices maybe better than rush decision

Basic insurance: You can adjust the model and excess each year with effect from 1 January. For this, you must notify us in writing of the change by 30 November.

Switching from the STANDARD model to a SWICA FAVORIT model or from one FAVORIT model to another is possible during the year, effective from the first day of the following month. If you change your place of residence, you can also adjust your plan during the year.

I did what I described a couple years ago, giving timely notice in November followed by the decision to remain (albeit with a different franchise) in December. Initially the agent said I wass too late to change the existing contract, which I countered by pointing out that notice ends it and the coming year will be under a new contract. After checking with the supervisor it got accepted, otherwise they would have lost a customer as you have until Dec 31 to decide on the new insurance.

the impression I get from the representatives in our local office is that they have studied the manual to pass the Lehre modual, are still very amateurish and are surprised when customer questions an answer.

I went in personally as I was unconvinced my questions were correctly interpreted, generating an unclear answer.

What made me the most fractious was the flat out answer that asperger/autism is an exclusion ground for the supplementary. It may very well be the case, I guess blindness is too? I’ll save the cost of the policy and give our daughter a massage giftcard

Supplementary is regulated differently from mandatory health insurance.

I just made the same switch. I went into SWICA to see what I could do to avoid the 126 chf monthly increase, and this plan was the recommendation - resulting in increase is now only about 30 chf. The rep helped me check all my docs, and they are all on the approved list. So no change in service really. I'm happy and glad to stay with Swica.

I would be worried about switching and in the future needing a doctor who is NOT on the approved list. Then what happens?

I made the switch too. I spoke to Swica Wednesday night, checked all my docs and pharmacies. Rather than a chf 100 increase I end up with a chf 40 ish decrease. The helpline guy said 85 % of docs/pharmacies in CH are on the list. I figure if I need something new most kantonal/university hospital docs are probably there. If I hate it, I will switch back next year. It’s a risk, but seems worth a try.

The thing that’s the risk here seems that if you don’t do the initial consultation as required a few times, you are bumped up to a more expensive plan. I did ask that if you had a chronic disease like cancer or diabetes, do you have to call for every consultation, and the guy said no, they open a”window” where you can seek care without calling every time just as they do for the regular telemedicine model. I don’t mind calling anyway. I’ve been using the call center for years now and I find them helpful.

I don’t like the idea of a pharmacy consultation, so as long as I can use the helpline, that will be fine. Hopefully it will be ok.

This is not really accurate: completa top deductible applies only on "complementary treatment" (that includes massages you mentioned) and on medicines that are not covered by basic insurance (e.g. homeopathic). There are no deductibles for eye glasses, spa treatments and all other benefits