Health Insurance in Switzerland – Find the Coverage You Absolutely Must Have

Switzerland’s unique healthcare system functions on a combination of private, public, and private subsidized insurance. It is your individual responsibility to undertake a health insurance comparison to ensure that you are covered for all medical care requirements with the perfect health insurance policy from the right provider. Otherwise, it will be too expensive to even afford basic medical consultation and treatment from Switzerland’s world-class healthcare infrastructure and services system.

What you must know

The federal law makes it mandatory for any person who moves to Switzerland to avail basic insurance from any of the more than 60 state-approved insurance providers. You can choose according to your convenience and ability to make premium payments. Although it is legally required for all insurance providers to offer identical benefits to every basic insurance policyholder, and they must accept every application, they differ in premiums based on the level of service that they provide. Some providers may charge higher premiums in return for private accommodation, a higher level of medical expertise, and even tie-ups with your preferred healthcare services providers.

In case you fail to avail of insurance within the mandatory timeframe, you will be assigned an insurance policy that will usually not only be unnecessarily expensive, it also covers medical care that you may not even need. That is why it is advisable to make a health insurance comparison before you even land in Switzerland. You can change your health insurance provider only once a year, as your premium is influenced with additional factors such as your age, gender, place of residence, model of healthcare insurance, deductibles, coinsurance, and others.

Compulsory (Basic) health Insurance

Even though basic health insurance provides identical benefits across all providers, it differs in the level of healthcare centers and services. Basic insurance is considered enough to cover treatment for maternity and childbirth, illnesses, and accidents. It provides insurance cover for doctor visits, outpatient and inpatient visits, nursing home care, psychiatric care, and other allied services, so you are covered for almost every general medical care.

With a health insurance comparison for health insurance comparison, you can expect premiums to vary depending on additional factors such as your place of residence (usually cantons), age, insurance model, additional payments, and other costs.

Do you really need accident insurance cover?

In a health insurance comparison, remember that accidents are a part of your basic insurance package. However, if you are employed with a single employer for more than eight hours a week, the employer is legally obliged to provide you occupational and also non-occupational accidental coverage, so you are covered from all accident-related medical care. The Accident Insurance Act mandates that this is the employers’ responsibility, so you can safely exclude accident insurance while making the health insurance comparison and save on premiums quite significantly. However, if you are between jobs, or are self-employed, you must include accident cover in your health insurance comparison. If you know German then you can refer to this site for the health insurance comparison https://krankenkassevergleich.ch/

What are the additional costs of medical care?

Insurance is enough to cover most of your medical care costs, but you are still required to bear some part of the expenses out of your own pockets. Whether you consult a doctor, stay in a hospital, or by medication, your basic insurance does not reimburse the entire cost. Some of the things you must be aware of when doing a health insurance comparison:

Option Deductibles or Franchise

Option deductibles or Franchise in Switzerland’s health insurance is the liability amount that you are personally responsible for during your medical treatment and care. Adults usually have a minimum deductible of around 300 francs, which means that you will have to pay this amount as the initial part of your medical care costs for a fixed period. You can choose a higher option deductible during health insurance comparison to ensure that your premiums are reduced significantly.

Coinsurance payments

Even after deductibles, remember that you are responsible for around 10% of the total medical care amounts called coinsurance payments. So, perform your health insurance comparison accordingly.

Additional or Supplemental Insurance

Supplemental insurance is required to provide additional coverage over and beyond basic insurance. The benefits vary from provider to provider, and even the premiums are decided based on the individual’s risk profile depending on their age, gender, etc. They can also reject applications according to their evaluation.

During a health insurance comparison, you can choose different providers for basic and supplemental insurance so as to obtain maximum coverage. Insurance providers do offer various discounts when you choose to get basic and supplemental insurance from the same provider. But you can also choose to change your basic insurance provider in case you get better rates elsewhere after a thorough health insurance comparison.

CONCLUSION

Government agencies provide updated insurance data regularly about the latest trends, premiums, insurance providers, regulations, etc. to enable you to choose the perfect insurance policy. But you can also refer to several third-party or independent health insurance comparison websites which provide a better view of the data and provide different filters to narrow down the list of insurance providers and policies that would be applicable for your personal requirements.