Every Franc counts when you earn. Therefore, one must spend every Franc judiciously. Switzerland, the land of the best healthcare system, is responsible for choosing its residents’ quality of medical care. While you have to select the most suitable plan, you don’t need to worry as the tool available offers easy health insurance comparison in Switzerland. Here are tips on how to get the best individual health insurance plan.
You may be a permanent citizen of Switzerland or a temporary resident; everyone must be under medical cover. If you are an expatriate, you are legally bound to take out at least the basic health insurance cover within three months after your arrival. If you fail to do so, the local authority will assign you a health insurance plan, which might be of a higher premium.
What is Individual Health Insurance System in Switzerland?
You can understand Health insurance in Switzerland like this:
There is this basic insurance, which is mandatory. This insurance is your right, and no insurer can refuse to grant it to you. You are entitled to all the essential medical facilities under this cover, such as consultation from general practitioners, nursing services, psychiatric care, accidents and trauma treatment, ailments, and maternity. The price of this insurance cover is the same across insurers. Law does not permit to make profits on the basic health cover.
Then there is supplementary insurance, which you can add as a top-up on the basic insurance cover. You can select a plan that works best for you according to your affordability and needs. It is this insurance cover where you strike good deals and get discounts.
How Do I Get the Best Price on Individual Supplementary Insurance Cover?
Unlike basic insurance, you have the flexibility to design the insurance cover, the deductible, the premium, the services you are entitled to, and hence your yearly expense on your medical needs.
A supplementary insurance cover is a combination of two essential parts, a deductible and a premium amount. The lowest deductible that you can pay is CHF 300. It is mainly the deductible amount that decides the premium. The more the deductible amount, the lower is the premium. Let’s now see how to control premium effectively.
Control the Deductible
Under what conditions should you increase the deductible and decrease the premium and vice versa?
If you are fit as a fiddle and do not require medical help frequently, raise the deductible to reduce the recurrent price of the premium. The highest deductible that you can opt for is CHF 2,500 approximately.
Cash in on Your Age
With health insurers, this is a global practice that the younger you are, the better insurance premium costs you enjoy. It applies to the Switzerland insurance market as well. Insurance companies see young, disease-free customers as a profit proposition and hence lucrative insurance costs. The mantra, thus, is to take out supplementary insurance as early as you can.
Draw Benefit from the Canton’s Laws
Every canton in Switzerland has its regulations around the deduction of premium. After you have calibrated the premium versus the deductible you are comfortable paying, find out the deductions permitted in your canton and lower the price of your individual insurance. This is your privilege, as it is for almost 25%–30% of the residents who benefit from canton-specific laws.
Switch Insurers to Get the Best Individual Insurance Price
You have all the opportunity and legal right to explore insurers for discounts and features they offer at a designated time in a calendar year and get the best price for your individual health insurance. Insurers are bound to communicate the premium to you by the end of September. You can choose to stick to the insurer or move to another one for a better deal. You must complete this process of intimating the insurer for termination of the insurance and signing up with the new insurer by the end of December.
Split or Combine Basic and Supplementary Insurance to Get Best Price
You have another lever to get the best insurance price in the market. This lever works by exploiting the option to merge or split your basic and supplementary insurance. Here is how you can perform this comparison [Website in French -> —evaluate the overall price of your individual insurance; if a single insurance provider gives you both the basic and the supplementary insurance versus two different providers letting you enjoy a better deal.
Exclude Accident Cover to Lower the Price of Your Individual Insurance
Here is another tip to reduce the price of your insurance. If you are employed for a minimum of eight hours a week, you do not need to pay for occupational and nonoccupational accidents. Your employer bears this expense.
Pay Lump Sum to Get the Best Insurance Price
The payment terms you decide with your insurance provider impact the price of your insurance. You can choose to pay 100% in advance or pay semiannually instead of annually. The benefit you draw from such payment terms is discounts that most insurers extend to the customers.
There are plenty of modes to control the price of your health insurance. Invest a little bit of time evaluating the options for better savings on your individual health insurance plan.
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