I don’t agree on this. Salary increases have way more potential for boosting your way to FIRE, than controlling your expenses. In addition, reducing your expenses is capped at one point, whereas salary increases are basically unlimited.
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Not really, since controlling spending has two effects : you reduce the time you need to reach your FI number + you reduce your actual FI number. With a salary increase you just reduce the time to reach your FI number, and without control over spending, might actually increase your FI number (depending on self discipline).
Theoretically not wrong, but there is a realistic limit achievable in a time frame with a certain degree of education etc. For instance, I know that I would not be able to make a super significant salary rise in the next 3-4y without changing job. And since I should be FIRE in about 4.5y, I am focussing on other stuff (and I like what I do for a living).
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Sure, that’s true.
I was more talking about the potential of an increased salary being higher than that of reduced expenses. E.g. you start with salary of 80k and expenses of 70k, you can can get to 150k and more in a few years, but your expenses are capped somewhere, let’s say at 40k, so there’s more potential to get a higher salary than to lower your expenses.
Also sooner or later (often sooner) you get to a point where reducing your expenses is not possible anymore, or only with extreme sacrifices (which I think is the wrong approach, as you then may need to live like this for the rest of your life and I prefer enjoying rather than saving money 
)
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Dear all,
In 2022 I had SWICA favorit sante. Zürich region and franchise 500 CHF and paid 340.5 chf
2023 policy is coming at 374.9 chf. 10% increase.
Note: swica is expensive but great. Never had a problem, always refunded everything. I have low franchise as I have some conditions, usually Swica pays 4-5k chf in healthcare costs. They kept semi private hospita flat though.
What do you recommend I do? Talking to them. 10% increase in base insurance looks really excessive
What would you expect? The prices are fixed and transparent for all providers. Either you’re ok with 10% increase or you switch.
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Nothing to talk to them about unfortunately, base insurance rates are not negotiable.
Btw why 500 and not 300 franchise, since you mentioned you already intend to use it quite a lot?
P.S. “only” 10% is not terrible in these conditions, mine would go up nearly 20% if I decided to stay with the same (CSS).
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Mathematically only 300 or 2500 franchise makes sense. Depending on health insurance if your health costs are higher than 1700-2000 a year 300 is the cheapest, if you are under then 2500 is the cheapest.
Calculator (Ger)
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Romandie calculator and a detailed summary of different insurances from the last year’s thread:
It looks to me that KPT Win.win has better conditions than Assura. So I have another dumb question: how can I check if my general doctor (which I am with at Assura) is in the list of doctors that can be reimbursed by KPT Win.win?
I stay with Swica as well, but changed the plan for the mandatory part.
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Does anyone know if health insurances accept cancellation letters if they are NOT sent as registered mail? In the template from priminfo.admin.ch, they only say it is “recommended” to use registered mail.
Not that I would bleed from the registered letter cost, but I find it more convenient to just put a stamp on the letter instead of creating a registered webstamp (not even mentioning visiting a post office).
As a side note, 2 years ago I tried to send my cancellation letter by uploading it to the web portal of my insurance (Groupe Mutuel). They kindly rejected it and asked me to send it by registered mail instead. It is weird to me that they acknowledged receiving it, but required to receive it physically to make it valid.
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Unfortunately, we are still in stone age with the digitalization of the healthcare system and related services. I did my master thesis with regards to implementation of blockchain in the healthcare system and found that there are huge gaps (still using fax for patients dossiers) with regards to digitalization.
However, I was able to cancel my health insurance per “normal” mail instead of registered mail two years ago. However, if you want to make sure that the letter reached his target a registered mail is the choice.
It is perfectly fine to give notice by regular mail. The reason a letter is generally required (instead of an upload) is that they need your original signature. I’m sure the fact that it’s more of a hassle to give notice by mail doesn’t bother the insurance companies either.
Registered mail simply gives you proof (a receipt and tracking number), which is why it is recommended. That is particularly important if you send in your notice very close to the deadline. But there is no requirement to give notice by registered mail.
Side note: With mandatory health insurance, even missing the deadline for giving notice is not as important as with other products, because there are rules governing what happens in this case (double mandatory insurance). You won’t end up having 2 or paying twice in the big picture, but you may be charged double premiums for a time and get those of your old insurer reimbursed eventually.
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With KPT Win.win you can pick a GP of your choice. It isn’t limited to a list. Just enter the name of your preferred GP in the family doctor field when you fill out the application.
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In my opinion not required, especially on a web portal with double authentication enabled. They could also technically just offer a button to cancel the contract. But yeah, not in their interest.
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Do you know by any chance if they also accept a Gruppenpraxis as Hausarzt? I’d like to switch insurance to something cheaper than CSS, but would like to stay at the same doctor.
Many medical centers also count as “family doctors” for health insurance purposes. I’ll be using KPT Win.win with an HMO as my family doctor, so yes, they do. Maybe there are exceptions, I’m not sure. I know a lot of other family doctor insurance offers also count many HMOs as family doctors. Personally I prefer a medical center where I can get everything done in one place over a GP.
that’s usually how things are setup (at least I can normally find the praxis I got to).
Normally the lists of accepted doctors or practices for a specific health insurance are published on the insurance website. Otherwise, call and ask the insurance.
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