Help me choose health insurance model

Banks, Insurances & Third Pillar
104

That’s actually funny because all German doctors I encountered in Switzerland so far were tempted to give more radical treatments than Swiss doctors. So it actually might be a good thing?
I remember an encounter with a tonsil infection where the german doctor recommended to drive to Germany to get Penicilin (which is for some reason no longer sold in Switzerland).

My wife with Mexican/US health system experience was so far mostly frustrated that she couldn’t get the “real stuff” when it came to painkillers and pain medicine.

105

Ah yes the real stuff: Oxycontin, Vicodin, Fentanyl :stuck_out_tongue:

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106

Whatever you do - don’t go with assura!
My first contact with them was when I moved and I had so much trouble with them.
They sent me two invoices and both were wrong. I could not contact them, got no reply to all my messages in the contact center. When I got a reply it was a empty pdf with a error message.
I think it took me two month to solve this issue.
And this was when I wanted to GIVE them money.
Imagine you have cancer, do you really want to deal with such a company? I’m currently with the Sanitas telmed model and it works great for me. Bad luck I had to use my health insurance the year after I switched to Sanitas, but I’m so happy I did it.

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107

Does anyone know how the cost of supplementary insurance goes up by age? Is it also governed by a framework or every insurance can set it themselves? If latter, then how can one take that into account when deciding on a provider.

108

Though the aforementioned Germany is most certainly not the place to get OTC medicine, quite the contrary (I’m aware of some things that you could get OTC in Switzerland but not in Germany).

109

I don’t think it’s advertized, and there’s no standard. I rediscovered it when I asked my insurance to switch to a different (cheaper) plan (my current plan is discontinued), and when they sent me the proposal it had the curves for both my current and possible next plan, and while the current price was lower for the new plan, the curve was widely different with a fairly steep curve and a much higher price at old age.

110

It’d be easy to simulate in moneyland. I think it goes up a bit.

111

I checked how much mine would cost if I changed my age to 61. It was twice more. But I am not sure if the same would apply for someone who is already a client.

112

Good point. Try to go up one or two years. I had the same insurance for years and I didn’t get it raised, at least not in the last 2 years. But otherwise no idea.

113

You can ask, it’s probably part of your contract.

1 Like
114

its that time of the year again, so reviving this thread.

I check Priminfo (Prämienrechner 2022 – Priminfo) and my CSS-Arcosana Callmed option will increase by 12 chf per year. It keep increasing every year (228 chf in 2015 to 305 chf in 2022) but I never changed since the only option that was considerably cheaper was Assura (others would only save me 100 CHF per year or less).

This year I see 2 kinds of saving options:

  1. Vivao Sympany Flexhelp24 (basically a telmed + HMO option) that could save me > 250 CHF. Looks like essentially similar (HMO is a plus) to what I have with CSS Arcosana but cheaper. Does anyone have good / bad experiences with them?

  2. The sketchy sounding Assura Qualimed model (see post by @yakari ) now has their panel of experts with BetterDoc Basel (links: Qualimed, BetterDoc in Basel). Not sure if they are really in Basel or still in Köln :wink: Any good/bad experience there either?

115

I am with Assura, though not having any big health issues, I am pretty happy until now. Pick up the phone pretty quickly when you call. About sketchy sounding, it is only if you need a specialist (btw physio is still free choice), they will give you 3 options in your area to go to. That’s it. They have an interest that you will heal as quick as possible without complications, so I guess they are actually good.

The only thing, you pay all your bills in advance (which should not be a problem as a Mustachian), and then only they pay you out. And they ask you to check your bill, but honestly, I am not qualified to check it (and who remembers how many minutes the consultation went…)

EDIT: For me, the cheapest would be this year Aputri with smartcare. Looks like a Telmed but with an app. Anyone tried that one yet ?

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116

Since they opened the possibility to make claims through the app, my personal experience is that I get the reimbursement before I pay the medical bill at the due date.

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117

That is actually correct. The app is pretty well done in my opinion
You see exactly where you stay with Selbstbehalt and Franchise, and it is pretty smooth (write policy number on the bill, scan with phone, send and done)

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118

Thanks for response. Paying in advance is not a problem. I have only once used telmed model of Arcosana, and they gave me options in 2 cities (i work in one and live in another): which i found quite useful.

Now I see that Arcosana Multimed model (telemed / hausarzt) is 35 CHF per month cheaper than the Arcosana telemed model alone. rather strange. more option and cheaper! they both provide dead basic coverage.

119

Today I’m picky. If you say “Until now” it sounds like there is something bad starting now. You should use “For now”.
English speakers correct me if I’m wrong.

(I suppose it’s one of my pet peeves) eheh

1 Like