Hello,

I am a financial advisor and I think I might be able to help you.

How long have you been living here?

Sandra

Swiss health insurance is obligatory in Switzerland and must be contracted through an approved official health insurance provider that provides insurance under the LAMal laws.

If your existing company is not an approved provider (e.g. not a Swiss company) and you have not chosen an approved provider, then the authorities (SAM in this case) are obliged to sign you up with an approved provider.  From what you describe, this is probably what has happened.

If your existing provider is an officially approved provider in Switzerland (LAMal), it is probably an error and you should contact SAM and your insurance company to explain and correct this.

Hope this helps.

Niall.

Yep thats exactly what happens if you have not subscribed to a recognised Swiss health insurer... (also if you are new here and haven't sorted it out within the 3 month period). If thats not the case, then you should email or write to them asap if you can't get a hold of them by telephone to get it fixed.

If you let me know the name of your other provider I can tell you immediately if its recognised or not.

Hope that helps.

Thanks George and all. My provider is Assura, which was on the official Swiss list of providers. SAM is impossible to reach by phone or in person - they seem to be either very understaffed or deep in hiding, or both. Yesterday I sent around a certified letter to SAM and both health insurance companies and copied the letter to half of the cantonal authorities. Let's see if that helps ;) Honestly it seems a little crazy that I can be committed to a contract without my knowledge or consent, and without incidentally ever having received a health insurance card or policy information.

Ah ok so that's obviously some kind of mistake indeed... sounds like SAM maybe either didn't get the info from Assura, or a misplaced file or something at SAM, and they kicked off their process with you. I work in insurance, and normally they are quite responsive by email... telephone you need to wait a while.

Just to update, after numerous registered letters and emails to SAM and Groupe Mutuel, SAM did eventually sort it out. But it took weeks and lots of patience. It's a ridiculous system and I hope someone reforms it one day. Meanwhile, happy to discuss offline if anyone else is in the same boat.

Hi Meg.

That's not a big problem. Don't pay any bills for Group mutual because u already have insured with assurance. U can write a letter RECOMMENDE to group mutual to STOP sending u bills along with proof that u r insured with auura. 

Contact Mr Charles Reymond friend of mine who is insurance agent of Assurgroup Sarl..place Simon-Goulart 4, 1201 Genève . He will help you free to write this letter. Best of luck.

Sam