Hello April!

In Switzerland there is a mandatory helth insurance that you need to subscribe called Lamal. You can choose the company that you want for this basic insurance.

The cheapest, with Assura, will cost you around 300-350 francs a month.

Then you can choose to get a "complementary" coverage for other health services such as ophtalmologist, glasses, dentist (veryy bad coverage even with complementary), maternity, etc...

You can use the website comparis.ch to compare the offers.

On the other hand, if you are staying for a short period, it is possible to be covered by a cheaper international insurance (for example your student insurance in the US might cover your stay in Switzerland under certain circumstances)

Hope this helps..

This a basic one and it is not expensive!

http://www.swisscare-intl.com/swisscare/switzerland/private/student-academics/student-insurance-switzerland.html

Check out www. swisscare.ch. Last I checked it was around 1k /year with a 300 dollar deductable. We used it and were pretty happy. 

Ha! He beat me by 2 minutes 

You need to be careful that your insurance is valid for the authorities. Otherwise, you can end up paying for a private international insurance AND for a valid Swiss insurance.

Here is the official website in English :

http://www.assurance-info.ch/en/default.htm

The one I sent is not an international one and it is valid for the authorities. I am using it!

students have special conditions for health insurance, and it costs them cheaper than the regular mandatory health insurance, almost half-price.

you can either see if your school has preferences or special conditions with a company or pass-by an international health insurance company wich offer covers for students.

It's always worth it to check on both.

don't hesitate to ask if you wish further info.

cheers

Aymeric

Aymeric is right, you may have insurance 3x cheaper and with a really reduced franchise, as long as you fulfill some requirements (being foreign student, basically). Check out with UNIGE adm, student secretaries are normally really helpfull.

Thank you everyone! These responses are all very helpful :) It seems that SwissCare for students is the most popular and the most affordable (around $90 for premium). It also seems to have a fairly low deductable (around $300 - $500) which seems comparable to the other non-student options that have a much higher premium.

I think I may go with this one (a couple students told me about it as well), but have one concern. Because it's more affordable, is it a lower quality insurance company or does it still cover a comparable amount of services.

Thanks!

April

Dont worry, all insurances will cover the same: access to the public hospitals, including HUG, and doctors/consultations/exams in general. if you want private clinics (and im talking about surgery/overnight/long stays), you need pay extra in any insurance anyway.... You may also acquire small cheap extras, as alternative medicine, world coverage, but this changes from company to company.... 

The post might be old, but if you're a PhD student at UNIGE you are employed by them and thus receive a salary. I don't know how all of you above get the cheap basic insurance, but the salary of a PhD student exceeds the limit:

https://www.swisscare.com/en/news-details/news/detail/postdocs-phds-swiss-regulation/

You have given the answer yourself by posting the link. As written there, the rules have changed since 1.1.2014 and 1.1.2015 in Geneva, respectively. So now all PhD students with a salary above the mentioned limits have to have a "normal" health insurance.