I just need to let off steam. I am tired with those people, the guys from Assura I mean.
I regret so much having opted for them... Since I moved to the canton of Geneva I was requested by the authorities to have the basic insurance, I didn't have it before because I didn't need it (I had a waiver by the canton of Vaud), so I had 3 months to send a letter to the authorities with a copy of my insurance contract.
When there was still 2 months to go (early january) I contacted the company and promptly received the offer which I accepted. Ever since they keep either requesting documents which they could have mentioned before (for example the residence permit) or just making questions, but each time a new document is requested they need around 2 weeks to examine it and give an answer. As it goes the deadline for the authorities has been missed, I call Assura every week but no operator is able to tell me how long is it gonna take or even who's the manager or simply give me a proper answer to the problem, and the authorities say it's not the canton's fault and therefore I'll get a fine, which is alright since I agree with them and I will probably just pass it to those bastards in Assura.
People from the cantonal office are helpful though and they also mentioned I am not the first one to mention this issue with Assura.
I don't think I can go to another insurance company either because I signed the acceptance offer.
We sent a cancellation notice with copies of our official deregistration documents. We've been customers for over 3 years - spent a 5 figure sum on insurance and never claimed once and yet the very nice people in Baden can't even read properly and send us a standard letter saying according to subparagraph xyz of Swiss law 123 in subsection a.c.b.d.f.h. we MUST send proof of deregistration (which we already did). I replied requesting confirmation that I had already sent this... nothing...
Yawn. How pathetic, anally retentive, mistaken, poorly communicated, incompetent, annoying, miserable - thank goodness we never needed them. I shall not miss this...
Just arranged international health insurance covering us in all countries of the world, full time with lower excess, better coverage (e.g. ambulance included, more private cover, full choice of specialists) for less than half what these charge us.
SO I sympathise with you. We had problems at the start as well with another insurer - I don't remember whether they were Sansan or Helsana - I just remember the San part of the name. They took forever to confirm our insurance but then, naturlich, expected to be paid way back from the beginning of whenever. I detest the corporate incompetence (or ARROGANCE) here in Switzerland. It is the only country I've lived in where I've found the public sector to be more efficient and consumer friendly than the private.
I booked an appointment for an appliance check this week prior to our leaving. This is for the piece of paper (money for old rope) to say yes one's dishwasher and washing machine still work. The service centre said they would not be able to send me an invoice so I must pay in cash. i.e. they did not trust me now because I would be leaving Switzerland. This despite having never been a single day late on any bill in nearly five years here. In spite of a 100% clear record and no betreibung etc. Then I was told an estimate 50% higher than I know to be the norm for this service. Again - I shall not miss this...
It's fair enough that they request residence permit. However, I'd be really interested which other documents they require, for basic insurance? Could you be more specific. I see your post was made in March ArcVD- so how did you get on in the end?
If you have asked for supplementary insurance of any kind, they will want to check your pas medical history, quite naturally, as they have to see which risk they will cover (or not) and at what cost (premium). Assura is the cheapest, I believe, which is why they are inundated with requests.
We also chose Assura, and although they refused us for any supplementary insurance due to pre-exisiting conditions, they were very easy to deal with.
It is sad but true that Assura are a low-cost insurer who operate on the principle that you pay a low fee to be able to claim you are insured, but that you don't get much in return. It is very difficult to get to talk to anybody in their offices and if letters are not registered they sometimes ignore them. I was insured with them at first and later switched to another company and they refused to accept my letter of cancellation (even though it was sent by regsitered mail and with sufficient cancellation period), claiming some absurd reasons (I think it was something about a letter not being sufficient but I needed a cancellation form, but they didn't give me that form or tell me where to get one), and continued to bill me for contributions for about 6 months after that and threatened to take me to court for not paying. I finally had to call a lawyer to make them shut up, but I never received an apology.
5 years so far with Assura for me and my partner, plus we now have two kids on as well - no issues or complaints from me, and they have been fine to deal with.