Exactly. You can send those bills quite a bit later. I don’t know what the max is, but sending them in in Q1 of the following year has worked fine so far (for my partner, for bills not related to the deductible but for supplementary insurance).
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My premium went from 280CHF to 315CHF. That’s a 12.5% increase. Concordia which was one of the cheapest last year.
I can go back to Helsana for 306 CHF. Still need to decide if it’s worth it the hassle for 9CHF/month. It was quite annoying last year.
As other users mentioned, the whole health insurance system is busted in Switzerland and yea this is what real inflation looks like, not the reported numbers.
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I have a question of the people using ‘Telmed’ models (i.e calling Medgate first) and have used it multiple times - is it relatively straight forward to get the go ahead to visit a specialist if the diagnosis is easily established on the telephone itself or were you still forced to first go through your GP or HMO centre before getting a referral?
Most MedGate specialists are doctors from southern Germany. I always get a brief consultation by phone or chat and then suggest a specialist myself. So far this has always been accepted.
(The doctor on the phone or in the chat must then enter the specialist - you can then see this in the app - and then you can make an appointment yourself)
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Same here. Even easier if you have been with that specialist before. But my n is not large enough to be significant.
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I might just go for the cheapest Telmed model then. It is 175 CHF more expensive (for the whole year) than the cheapest HMO model. And 1 visit to the HMO (to get a referral to specialist) is going to be more than that anyways.
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Telmed (by Assura at least) is also usually charged, probably same/similar as the GP/HMO visit?
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Good point. Make sure to pick an insurance where this is not the case. I never paid with Sympany.
To make it even more complicated, some insurances have different telmed numbers (e.g. Medgate and Medi24) for different models.
If you are in model X, calling Medgate is free. If you are in model Y, calling Medi24 is free.
And if you pick the wrong number because you didnt read the fineprint after your google search correctly, you get a bill later (happened to me before).
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Good Point.
Helsana Telmed Model doesn’t charge for calls to MedGate at their specified number, but there is Medi24 number too which is specific to Helsana (and maybe few others).
SLKK TelCare model does not specify anywhere is the MedGate calls are free or charged.
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I wondered too why my previously (almost) cheapest insurer asked for a huge increase and found this: Turns out my current, soon to be ex insurer, is now quite significantly below the minimum required solvency rate, having massively lost through the last few years. That official source can basically be summarized as: These already hefty premium increases of the last years were insufficient, many just kick the can down the alley, but eventually they will be forced to even more drastically increase their premiums.
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There are also models where you’re required to call in and listen to what they recommend you do, but then can decide how to proceed, and models where you have to follow what they told you to do.
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Digressing a bit from the topic of this thread, I think it’s interesting to note that increase in health insurance is not just (fully) inflation. It can have an inflation component (and surely does), but a considerable part of the increases are also (a) more consumption of health services and goods (on average) and (b) high cost of novel/better treatment options. The main point is that we as a society don’t just buy “one healthcare” (the same as last year) per person each year (even though it may feel like it).
Consider Hans, who buys one Gipfeli every morning at his favorite bakery for 1.50 in week one. Now if next week the bakery charges 1.65 for the same Gipfeli, that was 10% inflation, and Hans would be right to state it that way. But if he bought a pain-au-chocolat on Tuesday, and a second Gipfeli on Wednesday, and the bakery used more of the butter he likes, too, it is not clear how much was due to inflation when the total Hans paid in week two was 9.50 vs. 7.50 in week one. So when Hans just says “OMG, there was a 27% inflation in bakery prices” he is missing at least a part of the picture.
Of course this is a very simplified analogy, enter e.g. butter price regulations, mandatory changing amounts of flour the bakery needs to (is allowed to) keep in stock week over week, people arguing whether pain-au-chocolat actually is better than Gipfeli, Hans’ partner telling him to eat more whole grain, …
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Just read this entire thread, check the premierechner, and concluded to just stay with my current health insurance.
It is annoying that they use different length (1yr, 3yr) of contract depending on the policy I have with them.
What really (still) leaves me shaking my head is how MANY health insurance providers there are for such a small country. I keep raising this issue with my Swiss wife and she keeps shaking her head while telling me I need to accept the cantonal system and culture and all of it’s related consequences like these many health insurance providers. Switzerland really would be better off with some consolidation here…
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Well, I like it how it is, so I can choose the cheapest/best and there is some competition between them.
Interesting - my thought was that the current system must be very inefficient thus in the end more costly (and confusing) for the consumer.
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Inefficient, maybe. But I’m sure any efficiencies would go to profits rather than lower costs for the consumer.
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Surely the current cheapest health insurance is not losing money yet the most expensive is 100 CHF more a month (and the rest in between). Puzzling to hear the assumption that the rates would average up not down when larger players could drive more competitiveness / better service.
I’d prefer max 4-5 large nationwide health insurance co’s and with government regulation specifying some guardrails (e.g. around ‘musts’ for the basic insurance, pricing,etc.).
Will make it a lot easier to compare for consumers or consumer groups.
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Not that sure about this, given that often the cheapest in year X is not the cheapest anymore in the following year X+1. Then it feels more like a “sale offer” where they lure people in with cheap policies, only to farm them in the later, more expensive years.
Sure, maybe they indeed didn’t lose money in the cheap year, but not losing money is not the only thing a privately held company with shareholders usually want to achieve. 
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I second this experience.
I had flex models (GP or telemed) from different insurance providers (Groupe Mutuel, CSS) which used MedGate or Medi24. Weirdly enough it used to be just a call and telling them I have an appointment at the specialist, no questions asked and they would open a time window for 3 months.
A month ago I tried to call them several times for more than 20 min, never reached anybody. Also the app on android is quite buggy to the point it causes unexpected reboots.
In the app you can only book appointments with their doctors but not enter your appointment with the specialist you want to see.
I keep reading that apparently some insurance providers give more suggestions whereas others require you to follow the procedure. Are there any recommendations, so far I read only mandatory in the small prints?
I can also second that by not following the rules (e.g., asking to go to a specialist) that you receive a letter and they warn you that you might need to pay a higher premium of the free doctor choice model.
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Depends on the insurance. Sanitas is pretty transparent, on their telemedicine page they show CallMed and Compact One side-by-side and note for the latter that you have to follow their instructions.
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