Cancelling automatically registered health insurance

Hi all,

I already posses a health insurance with Swisscare and after the first year the SAM in Geneva had not received the confirmation of renewal from Swisscare even though Swisscare approved the renewal and told me by email that they will send the original to SAM in Geneva.

I have already sent the printouts of the necessary documents by mail to SAM asking them not to enroll me with another insurer

But today I received a welcome letter from CSS (new insurer) which I believe I was signed up automatically by the SAM.

Can you tell me how to cancel the second insurance and will I have to pay since the new insurance policy is already a month old.

Thank you in advance

Are you sure that you exactly match the requirements to be covered for the compulsory health insurance via Swisscare ? There are very strict rules on this.... it's quite problematic....

You can certainly phone (I would not send email) to CSS and ask them where they got your information as you never agreed to the new insurance....

You can certainly do the same to ask if your details were provided by Swisscare...

And you can certainly contact SAM in Geneva to ask why they did not accept Swisscare for your insurance.

You must have had a previous letter telling you that you needed to register with an Insurance, before being assigned to one. No?

So if you have sent documents, they have either made a mistake (very unlikely), or they have come to the conclusion you are no, or no longer, elegible for Swiss care. You need to ask them. Have they backdated it too?

It's illegal to have double LAMal health insurance contracts for the same person at the same time.

What you need to do:

- Call Swisscare and verify whether you still have a VALID health insurance contract with them.

- If yes , then your Swisscare contract will supersede over the new contract with CSS and in this case you are not required to pay the CSS monthly premiums. Call CSS ASAP and tell them that your existing LAMal contract is still valid and CSS will have to cancel the new contract.

- If no , then you don't have any other option than to pay the CSS monthly premiums.

Hope this helps!

Good luck

If you don't have a valid KVG-LAMal contract and you don't sign up for a new contract, the Gemeinde/commune/comune of your place of residence has every right to sign you up for a new contract and they don't always choose the cheapest insurance. It's very annoying but that's the law.

Thank you for the reply.

Yes. I received a letter and I they gave me a deadline to send the documents if I already have an insurance, which I did. But thank you for the reply

I checked with Swisscare and the cover is still active. Thank you for this information

the cover may still be active, but is not considered to be valid as you are possibly no longer entitled to it. As said, it is quite impossible for anyone on EF to know what your exact circumstances are.

This.

To add to that:

The municipal administration probably insured OP with the minimum deductible of 230 CHF. If that applies, then the contract can be canceled per June 30 with 3 months notice, i.e. CSS must have received OP's notice before or by the end of March. The point of this is, OP can take out an insurance with a higher deductible (recommended: the maximum deductible unless there's a chronic issue that makes the minimum the better deal), and potentially with a different insurance, in order to minimise the premiums for the 2nd half of the year.

Personally, I would give notice with a brief explanation of the contentious issue, and that there may not be a valid contract in the first place, which of course would render the notice moot. And under no circumstance can that notice be construed as confirmation of a valid contract with CSS, it's just preemptive "in case".

You need to act immediately, don’t procrastinate. If your French is poor ask a friend or colleague help. Also get your HR department involved.

Thank you for all the replies.

First of all I contacted CSS and they informed me that since this affiliation was instructed by SAM, I should inform SAM send a notice of cancellation to CSS. Which is the only option to cancel this new insurance.

So, my only option is to contact SAM in Geneva. But they don’t answer their phones or emails and I am finding it hard to get an appointment to meet an officer. Good luck to me

Would you be able to tell me where I can find out more about this rule? Thanks

You say you graduated last year in a post from January.

I'm not familiar with the details, but that may mean it's no longer possible for you to have mandatory health insurance from Swisscare. Which in turn would probably make your insurance by CSS the valid one.

UPDATE>

Issue Solved.

This is for anyone who will encounter the same problem in the future. I sent a copy of my insurance certificate and a copy of the signed exemption form (under intern|trainee exemption) Swisscare to SAM. They accepted my exemption and backdated the cover period so that my Swisscare cover continues to the present date and until my permit expires. So the autmoatically registered insurance is cancelled.

Thank you for all your replies.