Thank you, I have sent an email to Diabetes Schweiz (I hope this is whom you are referring to?)
Closest branch i can see is in Zug, but we are in Zurich, will that be an issue if we go to a doctor outside our canton?
edited to correct Canton we are in zurich not Aargau (Sorry)
I will email them as well
You can bring up to 30 daysâ worth of medical drugs, for personal use only of course.
Mandatory health insurance:
Adults want either the maximum or minimum franchise, the other options arenât worth it. So yes, take the minimum for your wife. She and the children also want to select the optional accident insurance. You, OP, are accident insured by your employer.
Check out priminfo.admin.ch (not available in English), this government site lists all insurers, their insurance models, by municipality together with their premiums (also note the additional info provided by the site, esp. the Versicherungen tab). Thereâs no reason to pay more than the minimum for the option youâve decided on because what they cover is regulated, the only difference is the quality of service.
You can switch insurance and insurance model every end of the year, usually you need to give notice before November 30 (as early as you want). This is fortunate because you donât need to particularly worry about chosing the wrong model, any errors can be corrected in a few monthsâ time.
Going to doc/hospital outside of canton can be a problem, also depending on the insurance model you select. I believe some top-ups deal with this. HMO for instance means you consult your family doc first (emergencies excepted) or get the insurerâs Ok in advance if you want to deviate (probably doable by phone).
As to your apartment, itâs common to have a minimum duration of one or two years, make sure youâre Ok with what you sign.
The Gemeinde will welcome early info, the earlier the better. Registration with the local school for the mandatory school years happens automatically behind the scene, this is the main reason early info will be highly welcome. Your children will get targeted support to help them cope with the language change.
The normal limit for bringing medication into Switzerland is a one month supply so I would bring at least that but I believe you can bring up to 3 months if it is a permanent move. You will need to double check that though.
She should register with a GP as quickly as possible and ask them to refer her to a diabetes specialist:
As for the deductible itâs generally advisable to choose either the highest or lowest.
I would take the lowest for your wife and kids and the highest for you.
Funny, Iâm in Ottenbach, one and a half towns over.
The wife of a co-worker does CrossFit - but Iâd have to ask which Gym.
They live in Knonau. As they previously lived in Kanton Zug, Iâd say their gyms are there, too.
The challenge with Insulin is it needs to be keep cooler than room temperature. Ice packs are too cold as you donât want it frozen. Insulin once removed from cooling has a lifetime of +/- 1 month so bringing more in might be wasted.
Pharmacies will dispense Insulin against a foreign prescription provided it is clearly written, dated, signed and stamped with the Doctorâs details.
Insulin, the ampoule youâre currently drawing from, can be kept at room temperature for weeks without degrading.
Médecins Sans FrontiÚres (MSF) has therefore teamed up with the University of Geneva to test the storage of insulin under real-life conditions. Specifically, this involved temperatures between 25°C and 37°C over a period of four weeks, which corresponds to the usual period of use for an ampoule. The results, published in the online journal PLOS ONE, showed that the efficacy remained the same compared to insulin stored in a cool place.
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)
About health insurance and gyms, some years ago I made some estimates. The much touted âinsurance pays for gymâ is about the same as paying them separately. Only marginally cheaper.
Since youâre just arriving, keep your options open. Donât get into a contract only to find out that the gym covered by insurance has no facility in the town where you may find the âperfectâ place to live. Find the right place first, then think about other contracts.
Hi Roxi,
Yes, based on a number of assumptions. The purchaser of Insulin rarely, if ever, knows the delivery chain from factory to place of purchase. Did it sit in a hot (or cold) delivery truck en route? Did it sit on the counter in the pharmacy overnight as it arrived too late to be properly stored in a cooled area?
I have had insulin straight out of the box that has been degraded. No visible signs just that it doesnât work properly. I take a dose intentionally to cover 10 and it only delivers 5 - which I can only learn through trial and error - hours later as insulin takes at least 45 minutes before it starts working and wonât peak for 2 or so hours. So 2 hours later I have to decode do I repeat the dose and risk hyperglycaemia or wait longer and experience hypoglycaemia?
While that study is nice to know, Iâm not going to bet my life on it.
Something very wrong if you canât live comfortably on 104 Thousand a year. Take a look at your lifestyle and make the necessary changes.
Weird thing to say when thereâs a family to support, they depend on OP.
Get a beer, read carefully the thread and rethink your choices 
We were struggling to find a place, as none of our paperwork was approved, and the demand in and around Zug is very high it seems, the place in Affoltern, we were the first to make an appointment and the landlord seems to be really nice, our HR went to go view the place, and landlord was flexible on start dates, and its very central, (Shops, Train, School) so for us it should be ideal. I guess we will only know once we move in.
Affoltern has a Crossfit gym, and i think Baar and Zug has one as well. Costs are just crazy when i compare to what we are paying now, but I guess that is the going rate for membership. And there are many more cost shocks waiting for us lol. Nonetheless we are excited and looking forward to our new journey
I have zero practical experience with insulin. Does this still occur around here?
I would expect that with the improvements in production quality and logistics (esp. uninterrupted cooling chains) in recent decades, that this is very much a thing of the past.
We arrived yesterday - I expect the next couple of days to be crazy but i will try update our adventures here occasionally (Like arriving without our luggage )
Just arrived for the worst rain this year. 
They brought the weather! You know, always blame the newbies.
However, welcome Zaffer.
The past 2 days have been crazy.
I was blown away by how efficient the visit the visit to the Gemeinde was, visiting any government related in South Africa is the worst, long queues, slow and rude officials etc.
The lady was super helpful, and the whole process only took less than an hour.
Unfortunately my work permit will take about a month, so the planned start date of 1 Sept has been postponed. Until then we have time to get bank accounts, medical insurance, and furniture, we arrived to an empty apartment, and would have slept on the floor if it wasnât for another SA couple who gave us some mattresses and bedding.
I tried to register for a bank account this morning, so my employer can pay me the relocation allowance which we agreed upon.
We went to ikea yesterday for some items, and i lost my wife for over an hour 
Ikea is massive and we were super impressed, after that we bought her an sim card as well, so we are at least connected now.
We also went to ottos for some cleaning supplies.
And all our luggage was found and delivered over the last 2 days.
We have to take luke warm showers as the heating is not working, but the landlord is attending to it.
All part of the adventure. The kids are loving it, but its all the admin is boring for them so today we want to take some time to take them to some spielplatz.
Were you successful?
If you donât have a work permit yet I suspect you donât have a Swiss document either (which would be extremly fast after two days in the country anyway) so which bank will open an account for you?
You normally get a confirmation letter from the commune when you go to register stating that your permit is being processed and thatâs usually enough to open a bank account.
And, some months/year later the bank verifies if the permit is valid.
I was asked to show the permit about 1 year after arriving to Switzerland. No more questions from the bank since then.
Yes i have the letter from the gemeinde only at this moment, i tried registering online on Yuh, but because i am still a tax payer in RSA i cannot register yet, do you recommend i maybe try Zurich cantonal bank?
