You need at least two insurances (three if you have a car!)

1)    Medical insurance:

You have to register with a Swiss health insurance within 3 months of entering the country; by law a basic medical insurance is mandatory. Things to consider when choosing your policy:

-          Basic or extended?

There are basic and extended policies.

Basic health insurance covers cost in case of illness, having the right to have a treatment, food and bed in a general ward in the closest hospital. When travelling abroad basic health insurance will only pay up to twice the amount the same treatment would have cost in Switzerland. This is completely sufficient for travel within Europe. However, purchase additional protection if you are planning to visit the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand or Japan.

-          Which franchise should I choose?

The higher the franchise the lower the insurance policy. So a franchise can be added to the policy to make it cheaper, nevertheless this has a disadvantage- all the medical cost until this franchise is reached is to be paid by you entirely.

I would recommend a basic premium with a medium franchise; note there is little difference in monthly rate between a high and a low franchise… and the higher the franchise the more you pay if you get ill.

-          Accident coverage?

If you work for the same employer for at least 8 hours per week, you are automatically entitled to accident coverage. This means you can buy health insurance without accident coverage without any concern. Accident coverage provided by employers covers accidents that happen both inside and outside of work, i.e. during your time off. If you don’t work for at least 8 hours per week for the same employer you have to get an accident insurance.

-          What type of insurance model?

There are different models depending on your needs. There are three main insurance models; HMO, GP and Telemed. With the HMO you must always consult a specified doctor in the event of illness, with GP you must also consult a doctor, but you can choose which one and with Telemed for every newly appearing health problem, you have to call a consultation hotline before consulting a doctor for the first time. There are other models and of course you can add as much as you want to your policy…but this will increase the price!

2)    Personal liability insurance

You might be asking yourself why you need this extra insurance…I fully understand…I felt the same the first time I heard about it. It took me several months to make up my mind to do it myself as I didn’t understand the purpose of it. The personal liability insurance covers costs for damages, material damage and damage to persons, which are caused by you towards third parties and which you have to pay for.

This covers uncountable situations that you may not even imagine, but that can occur…and if they do you are screwed up. Leaving by accident the tap opened in the morning, stepping into someone by accident on the street and causing them harm… all this is covered for less than 75 CHF/year!! This is the reason why I would highly recommend it… it covers every damage you can cause and which sometimes are out of your hand!!

3)    Car insurance

I don’t have a car in Switzerland…so I cannot give personal feedback in this area. Nevertheless I thought it would be nice including this insurance here, just so that those of you who do have a car acknowledge that you need a Swiss car insurance.

On the following guide you can find all the doubts that you may come across when deciding the policy you want to get for your car:

http://en.comparis.ch/auto/docs/ratgeber_en.pdf