Health insurance sent my bill and repayments to my husband without my permission

Complaints Corner
21
Our policy types were printed on the bill, also how much I paid for my glasses.

22

....ah now it is becomming clearer !

You bought new glasses and told your husband they were far less than they actually were and now he has found out and you are both pissed off

23
Now now. Some couples don't like their spouses knowing anything about their own finances.

24
Yes or the hubby is insured in general ward and she is splashing for private

25
I do all our finances. My husband has no clue how to even get into our eBanking (he is just too lazy) - fine by me, he'll never know how much I spend, where as I know everything he spends

26

I don't mean to assume, Island Monkey, but are you a female? I always thought... assumed... you were a male.

Yes, I (female) also do all the bills, taxes, and eBanking. I started thinking about what would happen if I were to die suddenly and wrote several of the more convoluted things down.

27
Thank you. Exactly. It's each couple's own business what they choose to share and what they keep separate. Both in terms of money, as well as in terms of how much they tell each other about their medical needs.

One couple I know has both salaries paid into the account of one of them, and that person does all their finances, including allocating each of them some pocket-money. On the other end of the spectrum, other friends do not share any costs at all, splitting the bills for the household and even re-calculating their joint tax to see who is to bear which proportion. Both couples have been happily married for decades, and like their system and it works for them.

OP, I can understand that you don't like things happening the way they are. However, it really isn't difficult to fix. The medical insurance company won't care one way or another. If you have a "couple's discount", you might have to forfeit that to split your policies, but you'll be free to do so. You just need to decide what you want, and then both inform the medical insurance company, and they will almost certainly arrange things as you specify.

28
Price of the glasses is not confidential information, it is publicly available info. As to the policy type, i highly doubt it can be upheld as confidential towards your husband. At the end of the day, he has a right to know your health status and health insurance situation as it may affect him directly.

29
Really and this is what you said earlier:

At this stage I don't think we can help you.

30
It would surprise me if this were the law, and spouses could not keep their medical and health matters private from each other, were they to elect to do so. Do you perhaps have a link that could show this, please?

31
Well, not in Switzerland. Married couples such as OP are legally obliged to share all financial information.

To protect their interests, spouses are obliged to provide each other with information about income, wealth and debts, if necessary also in writing, e.g. through bank statements. This right can be demanded by law (ZGB art. 170 para. 1 & 2)

32
Exactly this. It is a very bad idea not to ensure both partners are capable of dealing with your affairs. Because invariably when you need to them be able to handle it, is the very time you will be seriously ill and having this extra burden to try and deal with it is not fun.

It happened to my aunt (RIP) and it was very stressful for them both, she was in severe pain, drifting in and out of consensus and trying to pass on critical information to him so he could get access to their funds to pay for additional treatments etc... he was struggling to grasp the idea that she was dying and at the same time trying to understand the financial aspects. I was just helping him and that was enough to make me decide to make sure both my wife and my daughter knows where everything is, how to access my accounts etc....

33
After 30 years of marriage I still don’t know how much Mrs Parker spends on shoes and bags. I will send her a formal demand (naturally by registered A post) citing ZGB art. 170 para. 1 & 2.

Best make up the spare bed in preparation.

34
Yes, female.

I’ve told husband, if I die, he’ll have to go and see the bank manager and get everything reset and sorted for him 🙈

35
I do exactly the same for precisely the same reason (a boring task delegated to me). My husband would have little idea how much money we have in our working accounts ... I guess he will only find out when he receives a "Dear John" letter from the Bahamas 😉

36
I hope he has an account with some emergency fund which is only in his name (same applies to you). You might have power of attorney, but should you not be named as an account holder.

Reason: If you have joint ownership the account might be temporary frozen upon the death of one of the owners.

https://www.srf.ch/audio/ratgeber/de...to?id=10731817

37

Medical information is absolutely confidential even within a marriage, or between parents/children/siblings. I know this from my own working experience in a clinical setting, and also as a patient. Sadly, a good friend of mine lost his wife to suicide (she was an inpatient in the hospital at the time) and he had to sue the hospital to have her medical records released. Frustrating for him, but I understand why this rule exists. Not all marriages and families are functional, and each individual has the absolute right to choose whether to share their medical history with their partner or close relatives, or keep it private.

38
On top of that neither excludes the possibility that the error is OP's (just one more reason not to go in guns ablaze).

Some forms are a nightmare to fill out correctly.

Call the number given in the refund letter and find out what the matter is. Preferably using the phone number that's part of your contact data you gave them.

39
This, absolutely. Thank you for mentioning it. If the account(s) is/are frozen, that can mean that the widowed person, in the midst of the grief, turmoil, new demands from authorities, letters to write, etc., can suddenly be faced without any access to any money at all!

A friend couldn't even get her own AHV and her own BVG pension paid to her: no matter how much she insisted, the AHV and the pension plan both continued to pay per pensions into the frozen joint account for several months! They said it was because they had to re-calculate things, now that she was a widow.

As a result, during that time she had to ask her adult children to support her and pay all her bills (which, fortunately, they could just afford to do). She and her late husband had been helping some other people, and she was then in the very uncomfortable position of either letting them fall, or explaining that part of their personal lives to her adult children who were already taking strain, just to keep her afloat.

There should be enough easily accessible cash available, not connected to the deceased, to get one through that phase.

40
The first think he will need to do is deal with the visit of the tax inspector... so being able to lay his hands on a list of the bank accounts, valuables etc.... would be very helpful.