On average, any Swiss who does not closely monitor the amount of his health insurance can save between CHF 500 and CHF 2'000 per year.
If we report this highest amount of CHF 2'000/year over a decade, we speak of CHF 20'000 in potential savings. And if we invest these savings over the same decade, then we are talking about CHF 31'297 in potential gains.
As a good Mustachian, it’s worth looking into.
Especially since you only have until November 30, 2020 for your potential new basic health insurance to receive your cancellation letter, and for your new insurance to receive your registration (I might have a trick that can help you solve this in 3 minutes at the end of the article, if ever).
My basic Swiss health insurance (LAMal/KVG) for 2021 (and that of Mrs. MP and the children)
Our basic health insurance currently with Assura will cost us for 2021:
- Mrs. MP and myself: CHF 270.85 per person per month (with a deductible of CHF 2'500), compared to CHF 278.45 in 2020
- MP children: CHF 94.55 per child per month (for CHF 0 deductible), compared to CHF 97.15 in 2020
As every November, I perform the following checkup of our health insurance contracts:
- I look at which parameters my contract contains (HMO, PharMed, TelMed, etc.) because often I forget from one year to the next
- I open Comparis.ch to analyse the 2021 health insurance premiums
- As I have low annual sickness costs, Mrs. MP and I have chosen the deductible of CHF 2'500
- I realize that my current Swiss health insurance Assura is still the cheapest in my case (especially since this year they lowered our premium on top of that :))
We could still save a few CHF by opting for the “HMO” option. By choosing this option, an insured person must, in case of illness, systematically go to a health network center (HMO practice) first. However, I personally prefer to refer to my family doctor first (as he knows all my history). And this latter is not part of the healthcare network.
So we are left with the second cheapest model from Assura: the PharMed. This model requires two things: 1. to always go through our family doctor first, and 2. to take our medication in Assura approved pharmacies (Sun Store, BENU, and Amavita for the most part).
That’s it for Mrs. MP, our children, and myself.
If, on the other hand, you have significant savings potential on your side, then take action, because this is one of the easiest recurring expense items on which to save money (see reader David’s case study). And if you are lazy about sending the various letters (false excuse!), then go to the very bottom of this article — I may have a solution that could help you.
Which Swiss health insurance deductible to choose?
I am often asked the question, so I take the opportunity to slip the answer for all readers who hesitate between the different deductibles (CHF 300, CHF500, CHF 1000, CHF 1500, CHF 2000, or CHF 2500): one just need to do the calculation :D
The Internet being a beautiful invention, we obviously have a plethora of calculators for the optimal Swiss health insurance deductible. My two favorites are Bon à savoir (in French) and Moneyland.ch.
For each of them, all you have to do is enter:
- The approximate amount of medical expenses in CHF of how much you spend on average annually
- Premium amounts for each of the deductibles
And that’s what you get with our two calculators:
All you have to do is choose the deductible amount that saves you the most.
My Swiss supplementary insurance (VVG) for 2021 (and those of Mrs. MP and the children)
Our current supplementary LCA/VVG insurance with Groupe Mutuel will cost us for 2021:
- MP: CHF 9.90/month for alternative medicine insurance (osteopathy, naturopathy, etc.) with CHF 70 reimbursed per session up to a maximum of CHF 2'000/year — it was the same amount in 2020
- None for Mrs. MP
- Child MP 1:
- CHF 36/month for Dental Plus insurance with 75% reimbursement up to a maximum of CHF 3'000/year, compared to CHF 19/month in 2020 (our child MP 1 has passed an insurance age limit…)
- CHF 2/month for the Mundo insurance for health problems abroad — it was the same amount in 2020 (and has proven to be useful more than once…)
- Child MP 2:
- CHF 22/month for Dental Plus insurance with 75% reimbursement up to a maximum of CHF 3'000/year, compared to CHF 19/month in 2020
- CHF 2/month for the Mundo insurance for health problems abroad — it was the same amount in 2020 (and has proven to be useful more than once…)
Same as for LAMal, I perform the following checkup annually:
- I look at which parameters my contract contains (amounts covered up to which maximum in particular) because I often forget from one year to another
- I open Comparis.ch to analyse the supplementary health insurance premiums 2021 for each of us
- I realize that for me and the children, Visana offers much lower LCA/VVG insurance premiums (divided by about half!)
- I am excited about the potential for new savings worthy of a Mustachian
- I request a (free) offer directly via the Comparis website
- I receive the offer by email within 2-5 minutes
- I tear up twice because:
- For my part, their osteo and other alternative medicine coverage seemed attractive for only CHF 5/month, until I realized that they imposed to go through the attending doctor first to get a medical prescription... so it's not worth it at all financially speaking because I would have to pay the consultation of my doctor in addition...
- And for our children, by reading the short lines, I saw that the Comparis price (divided by two compared to Groupe Mutuel) covers "only" 50% of the dental costs up to a maximum of CHF 600 per year. It is therefore not worth it in view of the current orthodontic costs
I advise you to really read the small lines of the offers received from the insurances because a difference of the simple to the double is very often explicable by a less good coverage.
A Swiss startup to the rescue to switch of LAMal/KVG insurance in just 3 minutes
During the summer, I received a request from the Swiss startup icanfly SA to know if I would be interested to talk about their product on the blog, especially with the upcoming health insurance changes.
As I regularly receive this kind of request, I was ready to politely refuse (read “Mark as spam” :D). But when I saw that the company was Swiss, and that the guy seemed to have really understood that my blog was not aimed at Americans (ergh…), I took the time to answer him by asking him if it was a serious project, how many customers they already had in the past, etc. (see “Mark as spam” :D).
To my (positive) surprise, I discovered that it was a SA/GA company (so that’s reassuring because the 100kCHF of capital for the foundation of the company already had to be put down), that the director was based in Switzerland, and that they have been handling about 1'500 customer inquiries/year since 2017 without any media or other advertising. So the project looked serious.
They are financed by affiliate commission (like an independent insurance broker), but it doesn’t change the premium you pay (i.e. you wouldn’t pay more through the Swiss health insurance website of your choice).
I hesitated to talk about it here because I did not test the service to the end as I am not changing LAMal/KVG this year. But given the simplicity of the trick, I thought I’d tell you about it, mentioning that it’s “at your own risk, and that it doesn’t have the MP family approval stamp this time”.
The concept is simple: you enter your personal data, compare the results, choose your new insurance, fill in some other information, sign, and that’s it. They take care of sending the cancellation and the new affiliation.
The easiest way is to watch their demo video:
Some important information:
- The service is free of charge for the end customer (i.e. you)
- The app is only available in French at the moment
- They guarantee the cancellation of all orders sent to them until 29.11.2020 at midnight
- Assura is an icanfly partner. Hence, icanfly offers you a Manor voucher of CHF 20 if you go with this insurance via their app — for that you have to enter the code “MUSTACHIAN”
- The blog receives a small commission for each subscription (Assura or not) when you enter the code “MUSTACHIAN” during the process (thank you in advance for this)
So there you go, a service to try if you understand what you’re doing. Anyway I’m interested in your feedback if you test it — please share it via the comments below so that other readers can see your feedback.
And you, do you switch of Swiss LAMal/KVG and LCA/VVG health insurance in 2021? And why?
N.B. we are fortunate to be quite healthy in the MP family. This article is just a sharing of how we choose our Swiss health insurances for our particular case. So please take into account your own situation and make your choices according to your state of health. Because I am not a doctor nor an insurance broker myself :)
