I just got an e-mail from Comparis, and thought I would pass it on.

"9 out of 10 policyholders can pay less health insurance premiums next year - if they change their insurance company. There is still time to change until 30th November. By then, your current insurance company has to have received your termination letter.

Compare your health insurance premiums now. In Zürich, the difference between the cheapest and the most expensive premium is over CHF 3600 per year:
Comparis.ch

Download your personal termination letter:
http://www.comparis.ch/welcome.aspx?id=102743140527

It would be great if you could recommend comparis.ch to your friends and colleagues. The best medicine against the premium increase is a health insurance comparison - for everyone."

I know that a lot of people just took any old insurance when they moved here , but you can only change it once a year.

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I resemble that remark.

(And can a mod please edit the thread title for me? I am thinking that insuraance is only one "a" ).

Thanks for the post. Havent changed my insurance company just the Deductible limit, as Im hoping I wont be needing medial treatment, maybe just Psychiatric

Is Sansan good? I was recommended it as they have "real" people on the other side of the phone and they speak english.

I will change my current one and save around 100 CHF each month for two people. That is good deal I think, one major different will be that I need my private doctor from the list they will provide to me - well as I'm not so sock often I can leave with that.

I just changed my yearly franchise for 2010.... and my Insurance company told me that as the insurance premium will be increased next year, the policy holders have up to the end of November 2009 to decide if they would like to increase or to decrease the yearly franchise.

Normally, any changes to the yearly franchise must be done 3 months before the end of the current year.

So for those who wants to change... do act fast

My premiums will go up about 25%.

Anyone else?

Mine actually went down about 6% --

that was with no changes -- I'll take it where I can get it -- way cheaper than in the states.

What I have never understood is why almost everyone in Switzerland does not change every year. But they don't.

Myself, I worry that once I have changed to, say the cheapest, the service will go down, or some basic things aren't covered. I suppose, stick with what you are used to is my gut feeling.

My company is Visana, almost the most expensive on the comparis list, but I have claimed back over 8,000 CHF this year and am therefore up on the deal, so I feel a bit guilty about taking my sickness elsewhere.

Anyone else in a similar situation?

mine goes up too but my employer pays 50% with a certain insurance company. so even though some other offers are a bit cheaper, they are not that much cheaper and I'm pretty much stuck with the current plan.

I received my renewal with Vivacare, and it had gone up just over 30% from last year!

So I had Insurance Jenny (http://www.englishforum.ch/members/610-jenny.html) come round to see what could be done, and she's moved us onto a basic insurance plan with Assura for 2010, thus saving me and hubby around 150chfs a month. In fact, I think it will be ever so slightly cheaper than we were paying in 2009, and all we had to do was specify a doctor (which is no bother, as we use the same one all the time anyway).

AND Jenny did all the forms and we just had to sign the cancellation letter she wrote for us. Thanks, Jenny!

kodokan

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'Chance favours only the prepared mind.'

Just realized today mine with SanSan is going to be increased next year by 20%, no reason given. So... time to shop!

Does anyone have a list of insurance companies that have websites in English. I am only aware of Helsana, Swica and Intras.

I know some economists who have done research about the variance in the pricing of Swiss health insurance. Given that all of the companies have to offer essentially the same cover by law, economic models would predict a LOT less variation between the prices offered by different providers, because there should be so much competition. The reason for the excessive amount of variation is that customer loyalty and a bias towards people taking the easier, default option of sticking with the current provider means that companies can get away with charging more than others for the identical product without loosing many customers.

We just got a letter saying that our insurance, which we chose through Comparis last year because it was one of the cheapest, is now going up by 30%! I looked at Comparis again and found that our current insurer is now in the top third of prices for next year. We're therefore switching to one a lot further down the list, and will only be paying about 5% more than we are this year. We are therefore saving over 1000 CHF by switching!

I'm sure that all of these statements about the high percentage of people who could save money by switching health insurance providers are true, and I expect that a very small percentage of those people will actually make the switch, and the rest will continue to overpay.

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Cycling in Switzerland | Photo blog (mostly travel pics from Switzerland)

Some time ago I was doing some work for a health insurer and saw an aspect of the system that, I think, not many people realise exists.

One year, when the new premiums were announced, the company turned out to be the cheapest in the Canton. The communes pay the premiums for people who are unable to afford them and, for these cases, they naturally insist that the these people change to the cheapest insurer and so the company had a large influx of this type of client. Unfortunatly many of these cases are, for example, elderly people living in an old peoples home, the chronically sick and drug addicts etc and many of these result in very high claims.

Depending on their degree of incapacity, the insurer can pay up to CHF 3,000 per month for a client in an old peoples home in addition to their medical bills ! Drug addicts also tend to be very expensive.

The result was that the company had to take on extra staff and then start paying all the bills for these high risk clients. As a result they sustained a big loss, which diluted their reserves, and the following year their premiums had to go up.

So, being the cheapest insurer in the Canton probably means that the company will probably not be in that position the following year !

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I reserve the right, to declare right, anything I care to write.

I think one reason people do not switch is because of preexisting conditions.

As far as the basic insurance is concerned, pre-existing conditions are not, and cannot, be taken into account.

For applying to insurance you have to list everything medical. Above the basic they do not have to take you. If you have a preexisting condition or if you have semi private or private and want to keep that, it is not sure you will get that if you switch. Additionally, my private doctor told me that if you are refused for going semi or private, then you have to tell that on the form as well.

I can only warn against Assura. I signed up with them November last year, got my insurance card immediately, got first Bill in May for 5 months, and a Betreibung - Thank you very much.

Additionally, they "forgot" to bill me for November + December last year, so if thats their efficiency when recovering their own money, how will it then work out, the day, I actually need the insurance ? - I am not staying there and taking the chance.

Doc.

You don't have to have your basic and supplementary cover with the same company. So, if you have a pre-existing condition you can still change your basic cover to another company and remain with your existing one for the supplementary cover.

Interesting - thanks for the heads up. I'll keep an eye on their admin and hassle them for bills if necessary, but if our health is anything like 2009 then we won't be claiming anyway. It's worth saving 1800 chfs over the year for a possible slight adminstrative hassle and a couple of phone calls.

kodokan