This was a tread seems many years ago, however I wonder if today the situation of Assura remain the same? Can anyone share your experiences with Assura which were not nice? 

I am changing the insurance company and will just consider the Basic ones for the family. Any comments are appreciated. Thanks in advance.

i've been with assura for many years and they offer good service and repayment of bills is usually 30 days. also, they offer a reduction of % if you select to receive all your mail by e-mail from them rather than snail mail.

they also have an electronic on line form for your medical and pharma invoices

( excel) which automaically totals your return payment less the 10% !

you also get an automatic discount of 10% for all non-prescription purchases from sun store.

Thank you Epicure for your details. I wonder all what you have mentioned above are still valid? at least in 2013? I have heard only that Assura's negative comments however for the Basic I think the cheaper price does mean a lot.

You therefore have not experienced anything bad with Assura?

i had few bad experiences with Assura and cant recommend it. can tell you more by private message if you d like...

Thanks Remy, any recommendations?

Hi,

it's about 5 years I have Assura Assurance and I do not have any big problem with them. When I have had any problem or something that I felt wrong (any received letter), I called and everything was either explained or modified.

Thank you Javier. May I know how much franchise do you take with Assura?

Yes Myriam, you can send message to my inbox if you can. Thanks!

One of Assura's specificities is that they don't let you take medicines in parmacies and let the pharmacy send the bill to them, like other health insurances do. You have to pay yourself and then send the bill to Assura. It makes them not very attractive for people with a chronic condition. That helps explaining why they're cheap, since chronic conditions cost a lot to health insurances.

I work as insurance broker and can tell you my own advice : Assura is good. There are some specificities but prices are the lowest. The benefits are absolutely the same for all the around 35 health insurance companies. 

I've been with Assura for the past 2 years. They do what they say they do. 

They pay on time. If there's a prob, they're responsive on the phone. 

As Bustan said tho, with Assura, you have to pay all your medical bills yourself, and then send Assura the invoices. Other insurers pay the bill directly to the doctor / pharmacie. 

thank you Nir. Could you give a few examples of the 'problems' mentioned? Do they have English speaker at the service center? thanks.

i didn't have any real prob, only questions to them.

When I called they didn't have an english speaker on hand. 

Ok, I'll tell my personal situation here, as I'm a bit tired of hearing about how wonderful Assura is. I think that as long as you have no problems with them, the insurance will work good for you. But if you try to solve a more personnal matter with them, then they will treat you like shit.

At first, I was adviced wrongly by an insurance broker that offered me a type of complémentaire that did not cover my needs. Even though I was able to cancel this complementaire after a few months, Assura did not treated me right when I tried to explain to them the whole situation and how I needed them to help me. They just treated me like a number, and did not care at all about the distress I was in due to the whole thing. I eventually told them that I did not think they were correct towards me, but they just ignored me.

So I decided that because of that bad service, I was going to change insurance. I sent them my "recommandée" letter before the end of the month of November to let them know about my decision. The year after, I started to receive bills from them as if I was still insured by them. By the way, they still owned me money for doctors and pharmacy refunds from the year before. So I let them know that I had sent them a letter saying that I was not with them anymore. They said they had not received it. They threatened me to sue me if I was not going to pay their bills. So I sent them the proof that I had sent them all the documents needed to get out. In the meanwhile, I was trying to get my money back. They just ignored the whole thing. So I eventually sent them a letter saying that I understood that they tried to pressure me to pay the bills I did not owe them by not paying me what they owed me. I told them that if they refused to let me out and if they were not paying me back in the next few days, I would sue them for that.

It worked....

Thank you very much Myriam. Sorry to hear your bad experience, I feel the same for SWICA when I decided to cancel my contract with them, whatever they could do to stop you to make the decision, they will do. 

Have a nice Sunday.

Hi Myriam,

how did you manage to persuade them to cancel the complementaire?? I want to do this but didn't think it was possible, I thought I was locked in for the next 5 years... 

I was lucky they accepted that but it was very exceptional and due to my particular situation. I still have a part of the complementaire with them they refuse to let go. So I dont think it will work for you...

I have CPT because my employer will not pay for Assura (no idea why) but the rest of my family are all on assura and so far have had no problems. I was kinda worried about it at first since there were all these horror stories about them being late with payment but every payment has been just as quick as anything. Im yet to find out why they are so cheap.

300.-

interesting forum: let' s pls go back few steps:

1 - As far as Grundvers. in CH just try to get the cheapest (and Assura is indeed) because the service provided for the same level of insurance, for ex. Allgemeine, is absolutely more or less the same

2 - coming to opt for low or high "franchigia" I do suggest you rather go for 0 or for CHF 2,500. If you are a healthy person definitely for for the max.

3 - between Allgemeine and Private , given in CH hospitals you are rearely more than 2-3 people per room in the Allgemeine, get this one. Yes, if you get the Private they tell you you get the ChefArzt and alike but if you really need to undergo a complex operation than you get anyway the key docs in the house. AND I WRITE CAPITAL NOW: STAY OUT OF ANY PRIVATE CLINIC SUCH AS BETHANIEN / HIRSLANDEN AND ALIKE:  this are places where Dr. s operate ONLY to make money. For them you are just a way to make profit . . . you might have really bad surprises . . . in fact the setup is such that the clinic offers the infrastructure, on which the save any possible cost, and the specific doctor pays a certain fee to visit and operate there . . . the ancillary personnal is absolutely under-skilled vs. Kanton and City hospitals!!!

4 - . . . and you are done with the Gundvers.

5 - Now you are thinking of adding an extra insurance. Well you better do not. If you go and study in detail any extra insurance they are really set in such a way that they are always worth for the insurance co. The only good one is the dental one of you have kids, but subscribe it when the kid is really 1 yrs old because you cannot subscribe it after the kid has passed a certain age.

Hope you find my recommendations practical enough. I' ve lived in ZCH for 8 yrs and work in the Financial Sector at exec level. So you know my profile

Assura's pricing structures may have changed a bit since I signed up four years ago.  But.....

I calculated some hypothetical scenarios in an effort to select a franchise level (deductable).  In the end, I was not able to invent a scenario where a low franchise was advantageous.  The money saved by having insurance "activate" sooner was entirely offset by higher premiums.

If your finances are such that 2500Sfr out-of-pocket would be a disaster then Assura might not be a good choice.

Assura is a total mess, I can only advise to aviod. 

Don't do it. I'm stuck for five years now.

LAMAL (legal minimum insurance) can be legally cancelled annually provided insurer receives written notice prior 30th November.

Premiums and variables can be compared on the Federal website below, which other comparison sites and brokers base their estimates on.

https://www.priminfo.admin.ch/fr/praemien