From Helsana to Swisscare (PhD)

Finance, Taxes, Banking, Insurance and Retirement
1
I am from Italy and I have been living and working in Switzerland (Zurich) for one year and I have a normal insurance with a provider (Helsana).

In few months I will start a PhD at ETH Zurich and I was wondering if it is possible in this case to change my insurance from Helsana to SwissCare. That would help me save quite a bit of money which is always welcome when you are gettign PhD money (which is still quite generous at ETH).

Would also be nice to know if I should just follow the normal student procedure and terminate the Helsana contract or how I could do it :P

2
when i was a student in Graubünden I was able to get an exemption for the canton and I didnt have to pay for health insurance. Maybe you can contact Kanton Zurich (or ask ETH international office) and maybe you can avoid having to pay at all!