For context: When my wife and I arrived in Switzerland 5 years ago, we took out “flex” supplementary hospital insurance (i.e. you have the option to be basic, semi private or private for every hospital stay) for my wife (not for me) for the only reason that we were planning to have kids in the following years and that my wife wanted to give birth at a private clinic which you could only have access to with semi-private insurance (or at a prohibitive price if you only have basic insurance and pay out of pocket). Although I know some people here will challenge this choice in the first place, we are very happy about this decision as my wife gave birth to our two children in this private clinic and both stays were great memories, and we don’t think that a stay at the public hospital could have rivalled this experience in terms of care, comfort and of course for the certainty to have a private room with only one bed. However, we are now wondering whether we should keep the “flex” supplementary hospital insurance or get rid of it as it is quite pricey, it is uncertain whether we will have a third child or not, and even if we do it will most likely be in 3-4 years. We are therefore tempted to get rid of it but we would feel much more comfortable about this decision if we knew that in X years we could anyhow re-take it without being rejected by the insurance company. However, I feel like this is a real possibility given that my wife would by then be over 35 years old (which I heard is kind of a threshold age for taking out supplemental insurance for most insurers, but not sure if it’s true or a myth, especially if one doesn’t have any pre-existing conditions?)…
Does anyone have an opinion / experience about this?
Everyone has their reasons for purchasing complementary health insurance, otherwise it wouldn’t exist. Planning for childbirth must be one main reason, as contracts mention a 1-year exclusion for birth related treatment after taking insurance. I would say the things to consider before canceling are:
If you cancel and wish to go back, you will need to complete a new health questionnaire and if you have health issues it may be very expensive or even impossible (insurance refusal) to get back on.
If you wish to go back, the same “plan” may not exist anymore. The companies re-brand their plans, so the plan you are on may already not exist for new customers, and be forced to one of their new/current offers (may be a good thing).
I don’t think there is a 35-year-old cutoff. It’s all about pricing. Even if you stay on complementary, premiums go up when you reach their next age band, be it 35, 40 or 45. There is a 60 or sometimes 65 age cutoff, meaning that at that age the complementary insurance stops altogether! This because they consider working age people and pensioners separately. When you get close to that age they will propose to put you on one of their ‘seniors’ plans, with different terms.
Alternatives:
You may want to consider changing the private part (1 patient in a room) to semi-private (2 in a room). In my experience this reduces the cost quite a bit (as it relates to the difference in price that the clinics impose and scarcity of 1-bed rooms), and still get top quality service (in my experience with semi-private there are two bathrooms in the room so each patient has their own, and often the other bed is empty, however this may be dependent on the clinic and type of illness).
You may also want to look at the current insurance plans. In the old days the norm was “private” and “semi-private”, nowadays they seem to have a wide range of plans which could be more suitable or better value.
You may also want to consider changing the plan to another insurance. You can ask for a quotation/questionnaire and see what other companies offer and if you would be accepted. You are allowed to have different basic and complementary insurances, this is common and clinics deal with it, they charge the two insurances accordingly). Note however the complementaries have different deadlines and have to plan early.