Thanks Victoria, I will have a look.  at the moment we pay 1600CHF p/mth for Sanitas in Switzerland.  Are you able to have free choice of clinics / hospitals and doctors in geneva?

Hi,

My wife and I recently moved to Geneva where I will be working, but we intend to live in France.

I have been told that I must decide between the French and Swiss medical systems and that once the decision has been made it is irrevocable (outside of certain specific circumstances).

From what I have been able to find out so far, the French medical system seems to be a better choice in so far as it is cheaper, has more options and the level of service/care is comparable to the Swiss system.

However I have been told by an insurer that there are planned changes to the French medical system which may be implemented in 2014 which would then result in a substantial increase in the cost of the insurance (it was suggested premiums could be 14% of gross salary). 

Does anyone know any more about this or could you suggest who I may be able to contact to get more details? 

Hello,

I am coming in very late on this thread. Moved to the area, on the French side, in July, Signed up for a Swiss Life frontalier health insurance in April, as my husband moved before the rest of the family. I did not have much choice, it was one of only two who accepted us, as I was already pregnant at the time. Well, it's been very mixed so far. The idea is that Swiss Life will pay for "hospital and maternity" bills in Switzerland (cantonal hospitals) or France, and regular health bills (dentist, GP, etc.) in France only, which suited us fine in theory. But, as you may know, during pregnancy, there are all sorts of visits at hospital before the delivery: baby scans, blood tests, you name it. I had all those at the Geneva hospital (HUG), where I was due to have the baby, but Swiss Life has adamantly refused to pay any of these bills which they describe as "soins de ville" because they did not involve my staying overnight at hospital: at roughly CHF 100 a go, the total will not come in cheap... The baby is now almost a month old, I have not received any bills for the delivery and subsequent hospital stay, but I do hope Swiss Life endorse them!!

Hello,

I hope I'm not opening a close thread. I recently came to work to Geneve from the US. I have a work B permit, (live and work in Switzerland) but I finally have found an apartment in the St Genis, the french part, so I will change it as soon as I sign the contract for the apartment. My wife and newborn are still in the US but the are moving with me in January and I was wondering if someone could suggest me a good health insurance company or tell me their experiences with their frontalier insurances. Some people on this thread mention Swiss Life but I couldn't get a hint on how to ask for a quote from their web site (which seems awfully crowded), so if you could tell me the name of an agent I could contact that will be very apreciated.

Hello Juan Antonio,

I used Vigny Depierre (Alexandre Coullerez [email protected]). I must say that since my last post, the hospital stays (for me and baby at birth, plus subsequent operation and 1-week hospital stay for baby) were endorsed. But I changed my cover to one that includes Swiss treatment too (only if they are accepted by the standard Swiss insurance though), not just hospital costs over 24 hours, so hopefully that will work better for us (still with SwissLife).

Good luck,

Virginie

Hello Virgine,

Thanks for your reply! I'll try to contact your agent and see if she could give me a quote. Does she speak english? I just recieved a quote from ALPTIS, who someone in this thread mentioned before as a cheap option, and the premium wanders between 270 - 370 euros/month, for a frontalier insurance that includes Swiss/France services for the three of us. Can I ask you if that's of the order of what you pay? Thank you very much and I hope your baby is doing great.

Cheers

Hello again,

I don't know whether he speaks English, I assume one of his colleagues does. Order of magnitude for 5 of us (3 children) with Swiss Life: €500/m without Swiss dentists, labs, etc. (only hospital > 24h), now €700/m with extended Swiss medical cover.

Hope that helps.

Baby is fine now, thank you very much.

Swiss Life is fine...until you have health issues. My husband had to have surgery on his leg three times (the first two times failed) and after the third surgery, Swiss Life dropped us and refused to pay for the third surgery even though we have paperwork showing that they accepted to pay. Needless to say, we have taken this to a lawyer and it's going through the courts now. it's pretty clear to us that we were dropped because it started getting too expensive. No doubt had the first surgery worked, we'd still be "happy" Swiss Life clients. But the idea is that they are supposed to cover you when you have health issues, not drop you because it's no longer financially interesting for them (this with us paying something like 550 euros a month). I'd definitely recommend a different company than Swiss Life.

I also heard about the possible changes of French law which could imply a calculation of the health insurance contributions as a percentage of the gross salary, but I never investigated on this point. I would be interested if someone has more information.

Hello all,

I know this is an old thread but I'm hoping someone can help me.

My husband and I moved to the Haut-Rhin area of France in November, he works for a Swiss company in Basel.  We have private isnurance through BUPA international.  I found out yesterday that I am pregnant and my BUPA insurance will not cover my maternity costs for another 6 months or so.  My question is, how do I find out if anyone is able to cover my healthcare?  At the moment we are not paying in to the CMU, if we did that and cancelled the BUPA insurance, would we be able to recieve treatment through the French system?  I'm so overwhelmed and confused by all the options!

Many thanks for any help/info/guidence that you could give me.

Hello Alex, and congratulations on the news!

We have moved out of the region now, but I will venture a few thoughts.

First, try to find your local (French) PMI (prévention maternelle et infantile). It is a kind of clinic for mothers-to-be, mothers and children where you can meet nurses, get advice, etc. Everything is free, but it may be open only, say 3 hours a week. As far as I can remember, you do not need any social security number, French ID or anything like that. But try this as your first point of call, it won't hurt.

Second consideration is where you are planning to have the baby, pregnancy check-ups etc. There's no hurry, you can put a little thought into that. You may find that, for reasons linked to language, condition of the facilities etc., you prefer to drive a little longer to the other side of the border rather than going to the nearest hospital/"CHU"/"clinique". If it's your first baby, then USUALLY, first babies take a little while longer, so you don't have to be at hospital as soon as the pains start. Swiss staff tend to be more gentle and multi-lingual than French staff, but that's only my opinion. Have a look around while baby is not "in the way".

Thirdly, if neither of you works in France, then I am not sure whether you can get into the (French?) CMU. I was under the impression that you needed to have the French "sécurité sociale" (Carte Vitale etc.) before you could get a "complémentaire".

Good luck with everything and don't rush, there's plenty of time for you to decide!

Virginie

Hello Virginie M,

Thank you for your kind and encouraging reply, I'm having a minor panic attack here thinking about it and concerned about what I am eligable for.

I believe there is to be a change in the law this year whereby Fronteliers will have to pay into the CMU regardless of whether they have private medical care or not.  So that is what I was thinking about when I mentioned cancelling my BUPA insurance and going with the CMU however none of this is confirmed and it seems that it could take several months to actually come to light.

I will go to the PMI, I've looked the nearest one up and it is in Mulhouse, and see what they say.  I just don't know if I'm going to have the option to choose where to have the baby as my BUPA cover wont come in until after the baby is born - I just checked my paperwork :( This would mean I couldn't choose a Swiss clinic as the costs would be too high for me.  I'm worried that I basically have no insurance now at all.....