What are your thoughts regarding health insurance for kids, do you have any supplementary insurance in addition to the mandatory part?
Also, any opinions regarding dental insurance for the kids? A Swiss colleague from work recommended dental insurance as it can become expensive so >2 years ago I added that for my son (prior to turning 3) without thinking too much about it. Now I am trying to reassess the situation, triggered by my daughter getting to that age as well.
I think I have an additional one that allows us to choose doctor and praxis in Switzerland.
We don’t have that one, but we’re 2-3 times per year in Poland and we always do the medical checkups there. It’s multiple times cheaper.
The dental insurance for kids is highly recommended (if you don’t have a Polish connection). One of our best investments 
how can it be? How is anyone selling a insurance product where they would be losing money on?
It can’t be cheaper than paying out of pocket in every case
Maybe in general cheaper. But unless you have hundreds of kids and maybe there is some correlation that genetically linked children either all or none of them have tooth issues it may still be a couple of hundred CHF vs. tens of thousands CHF
I have a KPT extra thing for my son for maybe CHF 6 a month and they give you the first two years of dental insurance for free.
In general I would recommend to do a little bit more insurance stuff for your kid before it gets born and then cancel after a year if your son is fine. I know too many people with children that have some heavy problems from birth
You don’t know in advance if the child will need much dental care (especially orthodental) or not.
It is why there is a low age limit - otherwise, yes, it would be possible to game the insurance…
Actually sometimes insurers sell such products. An insurer sold once a wedding insurance for covering the costs of a wedding occurring in a young age. The insurance thought to the “accidental” cases. But clients from communities practicing arranged marriages rushed into this wedding insurance…
This reminds me of the infamous insurance for bad weather on your wedding day. You paid an amount of money to insure the risk of bad weather. If it rained you got your money back. I dunno whether it existed or it was one of my father’s jokes.
Thanks for the replies. In regards to dental insurance, it seems like there is no clear consensus for or against (other than using lower cost countries when possible).
I think I have decided against signing up my daughter and will cancel my sons at the end of the year, partially because I noticed that their supplementary outpatient care package already includes insurance for 50% of dental care costs (max 1000 chf per year) and 50% of dental correction costs (max 12 000 chf per year).
The additional “stand-alone” dental care packages from CSS would be these:
Does anyone have some numbers how much their kids dental care costs have been per year?
The supplementary package mentioned above (almost 200 chf extra per year) was originally taken because it covers 250-500 chf of “Family, Fitness, Exercise, Other Courses.” So unless I am oblivious to something, the supplementary part pays for itself (at least in our case as the kids are in a swim course).
even if every single reader responds I doubt you get more useful data than your insurance has
Very much true. My questions though was more for interest and/or taking it into account for future budgeting, rather than trying to outsmart the insurance company. I don’t really have any insights what the yearly costs could be.
For my kids I don’t pay that much (ca. 200 CHF/year each).
Still, didn’t begin with dental correction (at least one of them will have to do it, but still waiting for more permanent tooths).
Dental correction will probably be quite expensive. For this reason I subscribed for dental coverage on birth (Assura Denta Plus). I think I pay ca. 15 CHF/month (->300/year) and they cover up to 500/year (but if you don’t use the coverage it adds up year after year -> non that he is 10 YO I should have 5k).
In retrospective, probably not worth it (could have invested this money for later use) but now I keep paying, otherwise I would lose what I’ve already spent…
So this was mainly my point. Those insurance companies employ very smart statistics people and everyone seems to think you can outsmart them and make a “profit” by buying insurance?
Personally I only have insurance which is either obligatory or insures risks which I can not cover myself, everything else is statistically always a loss.
Be aware that dental corrections are also over prescribed, so dentists will tell you your kids needs them even if it doesn’t 
I am reviving this post as I just received a cold call from my insurance company (CSS) reminding me to consider dental insurance. Normally I would dismiss calls from annoying salespeople, but I have been wondering about this for awhile.
I have an almost school-aged kid and a baby… considering getting complementary dental insurance at least for the older one now. The problem is that health insurance is already so bloody expensive especially in my canton… we already pay about 14% of my after-tax income for health insurance (adults have 2500 deductible and kids 0)… so I am not super keen on throwing more money in that direction unless it is worth it.
I personally think dentistry is a fairly shady industry and that orthodontists are downright predatory…this is based on my personal experiences in other countries though, perhaps in Switzerland orthodontists don’t recommend braces for children unless absolutely necessary…
So, can anyone share who their dental insurance policy (for kids, but would be interested in hearing about those for adults too) is with, how much it costs per month, and what is covered? Thanks.
Off topic, but here is a great example of the type of predatory bullshit the orthodontic industry is full of (albeit this is in the US):
Some statistics even show that while 45 percent of kids need braces to fix very obvious problems, there is approximately a whopping 75 percent of children who need orthodontic care for not so blatant issues.
found here: Teen Braces: When Should Your Child See an Orthodontist? | Dentist & Orthodontist in Covina, CA.
For bonus laughs, click the links on the quoted numbers to find the reputable scientific studies they are sourced from.
I think dentistry is not as bad as normal doctors, since the costs can’t really be hidden. It doesn’t mean that dentistry is good. It means that the health industry is worse.
Visana Ambulant 2 costs 20.-/month and covers a lot of things incuding dentist costs of 80% (max. 10k). Don’t know if it’s a great deal, but I have that. Getting 200.-/year back anyway for my gym abo 
14% of your (combined?) income for health insurance sounds like a lot to me, did you consider changing company? I guess the cheapest is always the same one.
Single income, 2 kids, suisse romande. I won’t give the exact figures, but yeah, it’s about 14% my after-tax income. Spoiler: I don’t work for Google.
This is why I tell people abroad that, yes Swiss income tax is low, but it doesn’t take into account health costs, which in many countries are built in to your taxes.
With respect to changing companies, everyone I know tells me not to go with Assura. Last year I looked and the savings were quite minor compared to CSS here.
Don’t ever go to Assura. Aren’t there other alternatives like Swica or Atupri?
Do you have the TelMed option? Usually the cheapest.