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

Complaints Corner
41
Interesting. I was actually told by my insurer that even individual accounts could be frozen in the case of children because it is the full capital that enters into the succession capital and thus may or not belong to the individual or to other heirs.

42
No, I earn a really good wage actually , he wouldn’t dream of it.

They told me that when we overpay then the repayment has to by law go into the bank account of the names person.

Exactly !!!

43
I think you have been explained how it likely is set up wrongly and how to fix it. I understand you are annoyed as something went slightly wrong but there is no real harm done here right? So just follow the step by step outlined kindly by Doropfiz up above and you are through.

44
Wow, that, too. I suppose it makes sense.

Recently a friend's father died. Even though he was already widowed, everything was frozen.

During his last few years, he kept telling them: "When I die, you open that box at the top of the wardrobe." So they did. It contained instructions for cremation and death-notices, etc., but also several envelopes, each marked clearly for all the expenses for three months, containing cash. The adult children were able to move ahead and do all that was needed during the interim until the accounts were released.

45
The individual accounts of the deceased, and also the accounts were they are listed as owners. But not the individual accounts of the surviving spouse. That would be plain bonkers.

46
It was explained to me that also the accounts of the surviving spouse are part of the succession if you have the traditional Swiss set up that anything "gained" after marriage belongs to the marriage and hence half of it to the deceased spouse. To me it made sense even though I agree it is bonkers.

I trusted it but may have been wrong so will look it up now and report back.

47
It doesn't make any sense, as in the traditional regime , there is also the Eigengut/biens propres consisting of everything you had before marriage, all you have inherited, and all you got gifted (and the profit from it).

48
That, however, is just what happened to my friend who was widowed (and whose situation I described above). All of the deceased husband's accounts, all of their joint accounts, and all of her own accounts were blocked, too.

While she was struggling to get her AHV and BVG pensions paid to her and her alone, she tried to open a new bank account (in the hopes that the AHV and BVG would concede and use that new account) but to her dismay she was refused, at the bank , because they thought she was trying to dishonestly or illegally get around some rule or other (as far as she knew, she was not), and would have no part in it. (I do wonder whether, had she been persistent and gone to another bank, she might have succeeded, but even then she'd still have had to do battle with the AHV and the BVG, for them to agree to pay the money into her new account.)

All the people involved were Swiss and in Switzerland.

49
If there is a significant transfer from to the deceased's account to their spouse's individual account, there may be a request to freeze that account as well.

50
That's just nuts!

How do they expect a widow to continue to live, as well as arrange and pay for funeral expenses, with no access to money?

If it were the Good Ol' Days, and everything was being paid by cheque, then she could just get her cheques for the incoming payments cashed but, these days, everything is automatically transferred into the now-frozen accounts ...

It also begs the question: would the same be true if she had died, would her husband's individual account have been blocked as well as hers and the joint accounts?

51
Funeral expenses are paid by the estate of the deceased, not the widow.

Tom

52
Totally nuts. At the time, no-one seemed to care, or at least all of her requests to the authorities, the AHV, the pension scheme and the banks fell on deaf ears. Nevertheless, the bills kept arriving. Fortunately, she had adult children who helped.

Yes, I believe that would have been the case, too. I don't think it was about "widow" or "widower", but only about "a death".

Yes, that's true. But in practice, that's possible only after the accounts have been unfrozen. So in my friend's case, her adult children bore those expenses, too, (along with all of their mother's other costs) until - several months after the funeral! - their parents' accounts were once again accessible, and she could refund them.

In the other case I described, all this trouble was avoided by the deceased's forethought, in having allocated, long before his death, envelope-fulls of cash to each type of expense, enough for several months.

53

An invoice for glasses is not medical information

54
Man, this thread is just too funny. In my marriage I do not hide my personal spending from my partner, but that doesn't work in all couples, I understand that.

The fact that you think this is sexist (which in this case I don't think it is, but there's definitely a lot of this happening in this country, let's be honest, such as in the aforementioned tax "return" form) reminds me of something that happened to me last year.

When my youngest child was born, her mom got access to the digital account from the health provider, could see all the lab results, could make appointments online and everything, even though I was the main account holder (attached to my US employment), somehow they didn't get this set up for me, even after I asked for it to be rectified... Except bills! Those always ended up on my account.

At least I was allowed in the Labor & Delivery clinic; I hear there are still some places where fathers-to-be are not allowed.

55
This is sexist, period. Don't bother with those who told you that this is not.

To avoid this kind of scenarios from happening, I always go taking care of these things by myself without telling them I have a husband whatsoever, unless this info is absolutely required.

56
move to a country that supports your ideal.

Tom

57
We have to work within the system of the country we live in...swimming against the tide is tiring for all concerned, and likely fail!

But back to the point; as I think I posted before, I am older than my spouse, but still stupid enough to do dangerous sports. We were advised by the bank to have separate single name account for each spouse with enough money in it to cover the (possibly lengthy) delays getting estate resolved after a sudden death. Seemed like good advice so we did it: one "personal" savings account each and a lot of shared for the rest.

B

58
You are not forced to take out a group policy, you are free to pay more if you want. But the point of taking out such a policy is to save money and that means keeping costs to a minimum by having main account holder, not add costs to satisfy a small number of customers who throw a wobbly above a manufactured problem. If you could come up with an example of an insurance company requiring that the corresponding member be male you’d have a point otherwise it’s just a whole lot of nonsense.

59
Indeed - main account holder can be both male and female, but has to be one.

Could be seen as sexist both ways - if they pick the woman, it's sexist as she is assumed to care for family matters and if the man, it's sexist because it's assumed he pays

I have had both together and separate from hubby for different reasons and was never an issue, we could have as the account holder whoever we want.

60
Our house is in my name only - all the bills and everything to do with us as a couple in Switzerland, comes to me, in my name. My husband has never complained or found it sexist. We could change it- but it would cost us, so we have not bothered. OH was not Swiss when we bought the house, so it had to be done in my name.

His money has always been our money- and mine, mine and he has never complained either (in 52 years )

As said above, the choice of Health Insurance model you choose is up to you. You can choose to have totally separate systems- which create more redtape and admin for the insurance, and pay extra.

Your post did remind me ofa conversation I once had in the UK. Stopped in the street by Market Researcher- was in a good mood, so agreed to answer the questions. Question 1- who is the Head of Household in your family? Me - none! But there must be one- Do you work? Me - no! Ah so your husband works, so he is the Head of Household! Me - No! Well he earns money and you don't so .... Me - No. Went on for a couple of minutes- until I said 'I can't answer your questions if you can't understand the answers, sorry. But, she said, we can just say he is the HofH,just for the questionnaire. Me - nope!