Tbh, it’s pretty easy to get health care in the UK. When husband had to go into hospital there back in 2012 we struggled to even get the hospital staff to do the paperwork for the Swiss health insurance. Took them 10 days before they got it sorted out. And we registered with a doctor in 2023 and also recently got our free flu jab because we’re both over 65. Could have gotten the covid one as well. No one would even think to ask us about whether they should pass the costs on to a Swiss health insurer.
Having both UK and Swiss pensions is where the crunch comes it seems.
So unless the Swiss end makes a fuss I can’t see any problem with dropping the health care payments here.
Will probably still go through the exemption attempt though because I don’t like breaking the rules, but the UK really doesn’t do due diligence on this stuff even now.
If you have both and live in either UK or CH, then it is pretty clear cut. The complexities arise when you live in a third country as the situation is then a bit more unusual.
Was supposed to have done that some years ago. I remember reading some article where the government was laying down the law about it. There’s even a 124 page document about it.
The important point there is that you are registered with a GP linked to your address there so as far as they’re concerned you are a UK resident and there would he no reason for them to even think about passing the costs on unless you told them otherwise.
Exactly! We will be permanent residents when we move back and fully entitled to free NHS care far as I can see. I suspect that even if we did show them our Swiss health care cards they’d ignore them. It was difficult enough getting the hospital to follow through; I doubt any GP surgery even knows about the treaties dealing with this. Obviously if a foreign visitor wanted to see a doctor they may know about that side of it, but for people actually living in the UK even though they’ve been abroad for many years before moving back - I seriously doubt it.
Oh they do, my sister in law was practice manager at a large practice in hertfordshire until she retired and in theory they had to rigorously check all new patients before registering them. In practice the just don’t have the time nor the manpower to do it so people just slip through.
They managed to find the funding to organise extensive training courses on how to implement things but not for the actual implementation itself.
AI comes along and does a survey of how many years patients have paid Narional Insurance Contributions and if there are any gaps. The data is all there …
I think we are both talking about early pillar 2 withdrawals? At least that is what I understood you had made (and I will as well). If this is the case then KVG informed me that ‘‘an early withdrawal/capital withdrawal or a payment from the 2nd pillar also leads to compulsory insurance’’ & requires an exemption request (see the screenshot from the letter I received from the KVG in my earlier post).
When you made your withdrawal did you (1) submit an exemption request, and (2) can you share any information you have on not having to keep compulsory insurance when relocating if not working? That would be my preferred option but I can’t seem to find anything on the BAG or KVG websites on this.
I had to show to the Swiss health insurance that I had access to the local health service, it’s a reciprocal agreement with the UK from 1956 in my case, for which they give a certificate. For the Pillar 2 I had to show proof I was ‘registered in the new country’, so provided a certificate of tax residency from my new EU country.
I had a thread on EF “Leaving to live in the EU & cashing in a Swiss pension” however I think it got lost when the new forum was created.
Unfortunately if in receipt of a Swiss pension you are not entitled to use the NHS for free. Amazed you can’t see this as historically you were always a stickler for detail. Using the NHS without Swiss Health insurance would amount to fraud & theft of services.
I found the title from searching this forum, as it had been linked in a previous thread. The thread would have been started in 2015, when I got the pillar 2 cash.
I did say I’d probably still go through the exemption process because I don’t like breaking the rules.
I just find it kinda stupid that I may be required to continue with Swiss health insurance when the NHS is available to anyone ordinarily resident in the country. After all I have paid into the UK system for a number of years when I was working there. And the only reason I have a Swiss pension is because the Swiss insist that my husband contribute to one for me since I wasn’t working here.
Here is the form used to register with a GP in the UK. It seems that visits to the GP are always free for UK residents. However, for anything more they will need to establish your status (see page 2 of the form). So no checks are done when registering with a GP, but this doesn’t mean you have been accepted by the NHS for anything more serious. The last 1/4 of the form is about people retiring to the UK and S1 forms.
PS: I am not sure how relevant it is whether the UK NHS will “accept” you or not. As long as the Swiss are not letting you go (from the Swiss healthcare), you are stuck with it…
I wonder if delaying is possible when not working, and if it is then will this increase the Swiss pension part payouts?
Another loophole is that there are EU countries that doesn’t care about keeping track of you (no requirement to register at the municipality, etc). My home country doesn’t even know that I left it many years ago. Why not moving first to some favorable EU country just to break ties with Switzerland, then move wherever you really want to.
I really think it is the other way around, until such time as some other system has accepted you, the Swiss system is obliged to keep you and ultimately accept responsibility for your health costs