I had an injury a couple of months ago and the bills keep rolling in. I'm up to 2500CHF now. About 1000CHF is direct billed by the insurance company (to whom I pay 400CHF per month in premiums).
I am really ticked off about this because:
1. What the bloody hell am I paying 400CHF a month for?
2. My premiums don't seem to cover Rx
3. I have to pull this money out of my @rs# because nobody takes a credit card.
4. The other 1500CHF doesn't get compensated by insurance even in part until first I pay it by pulling the money out of said orifice mentioned in item 3.
While I have absolutely zero complaints about the quality of the treatment, the way the billing and payments systems work is seriously below par. What I really can't believe is that the system in the US is actually better, cheaper and covers more!
I too think the system is rubbish and would rather pay 100% myself we are sick. The kids and I have all had something expensive that wasn't covered under the basic or supplementary insurances we have.
My biggest gripe was a retained placenta not being covered as pregnancy ie with a deductable - twice now. You don't have a placenta without a pregnancy
If you had an injury, one would reasonably assume it's due to an accident, so would be covered by your employer provided accident insurance at 0 cost to you?
That's true - I had a shoulder injury a few years back (fell over in a car park ) and I never saw a bill. All was sorted out through my employer and the hassle started and finished with the hospital giving me a form to get my employer's details.
I had a pretty bad year that is leaving me insane for the poor service of my Health Insurance.
I contacted Jenny to get a new one, and I'm crossing my fingers for next year.
One thing I know for sure: even with the blood 2 months waiting list to get a doctor appointment in Portugal, the system covered more and was more sick-people friendly.
That's why I pay the insurance, and ignore it. When I go to a doctor, i take for granted I'm paying 100%. Any fee from the Krankenkasse comes as utter surprise.
I had to pay 6000CHF bill because my semi private hospital cover insurance would not pay for my 1 week stay in semi private hospital because my illness was IVF related
Basically in very small print (unknown to my IVF doctor who had never seen this claus before) it said that any illness resulting from IVF treatment would not be covered. Of course i was sent into hospital (not as an emergecny) but urgently and advised to go to the hospital my doctor works at and as I pay a small fortune and have semi private cover we thought we'd have no issue
2 weeks after i came home we were landed with a 6k bill. If I had known before hand I'd have gone to a normal hospital but in an urgent situation I assumed they'd cover me
Then when I was pregnant and sending the paper work off to the private hospital to have the baby there I got a letter back from the insurance company which said I was not allowed to give birth in that hospital. When I called and questioned they said because the pregnancy was a result of IVF treatment and therefore they didn't have to cover me! WTF! I kicked up a fuss and they soon retracted their comment and i had my baby in the private hospital
I can laugh about the absurdness of it now but then was a different matter
Sorry to read your post. Like you, I've had major problems with Atupri. In fact, I spoke to a lab who said Atupri is the only health provider they have billing issues with. My biggest gripe was that Atupri covered zero of my pregnancy expenses because it ended in a miscarriage. Now I understand that a visit relating to a miscarriage is considered a pregnancy "complication" and not covered. However, the previous control visits should have been covered.
I've never been particularly public about companies to avoid. But Atupri is what has made me despise Swiss healthcare. I've switched to Swica for January after hearing excellent recommendations from others, plus they do communications (written) in English if requested.
This has been discussed before, but the coverage options also differentiate between levels of care available.
Private insurance means that you may be seen by a Chefartz when in the hospital.
Semi-private means that you may be seen by an Oberarzt when in the hospital.
Basic insurance means that you get the luck of the draw - and could end up being seen by junior staff who haven't got a clue, but can't refer you to the Oberarzt, because your insurance does not allow him/her to see you.
From earlier discussions here, some posters have had no trouble seeing highly qualified doctors while on basic insurance. My experience had been the opposite, though. Perhaps the difference is that I live in the boondocks, where highly qualified doctors are something of a rare species, perhaps that in cities one has access to more resources.
If you can get semi- or private coverage, do so. By the time you need it, you probably can't get it.
Thankfully, I had no problems with Concordia with payment for anything regarding my pregnancy or miscarriages. I was surprised they didn't pay for my prenatal vitamins but everything from pregnancy care doctor visits, doctor and midwife attention during my hospital stay to "psychosomatisch" aftercare (therapist counseling) was covered. So painful to think about details (particularly right now as last week "would have been" 2nd birthday) but perhaps mine was covered because I was far enough along that I actually had to go through the labor process.
We went with Concordia as that's what hubby has had through his mother, when we got married, we stuck with the same company. Hubby's employer has some sort of agreement with Swica so we got information from them this year if we want to switch, he looked into it / discussed it with his coworkers and apparently what we have now is better than what he'd have through them.
Now, one beef I do have with Concordia is that they really don't have any support in English. I understand why they don't , but after having been in charge of sorting details for my own heathcare for years, this is one of the spots where language problems grinds my gears. HOWEVER, I had reason to contact Concordia within the past few months (and got someone who could speak English with me), the associate I spoke with said that they are intending to have support (paperwork and all) available in English within the next couple years.
I can't speak for the rest of the insurances, but my health coverage through SWICA and my accident insurance through.... through... well, I can't remember who... have been pretty solid.
Accident insurance is a no brainer. Sprained an ankle pretty badly while doing sport, and simply walked into Permanence at the HB, got the necessaries, and never saw the bill. All directly sent to my insurance.
Health insurance I always have to pay first and get reimbursed, but it's never been a problem. In fact, I often get more reimbursed than I'm expecting - I simply send all the receipts in an envelope with my policy number to their office in Luzern and I'm done. A couple of days later the money's in my account. I have a pretty high bridge (2500, I think) but some of things such as the share they pay towards my contact lenses or fitness membership get reimbursed without regard to the bridge.
You have to remember that in Switzerland a couple of thousand is not a lot of money. In the US and probably UK, where debt is king, it's hard to come up with that kind of scratch - but for a Swiss person, it's not at all unreasonable to have the money set by for this kind of thing. If it's difficult for you, then when your next round of insurance negotiation comes up, you should make a point of asking how to pay large bills. Most of the companies I've worked with are pretty reasonable and can come up with some kind of solution.