Hi Catherine,

You have a certain amount of time to choose your health insurance (the canton counts from the moment you get your permit), but it will be retroactive from your arrival.

I don't think there is a way of not paying retroactively. On the other hand, the insurance would have to reimburse you if you did any payments during the "retroactive period" the insurance would cover.

I hope this helps.

Stephanie

Some insurers backdate, some don't. In my opinion what did Sanitas is not correct. Read what says the the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) ; 

 http://www.bag.admin.ch/themen/krankenversicherung/04114/04123/index.html?lang=en

Then no obligation to backdate is registration out of the 3 months deadline. It's Lamal law :

1 Lorsque l'affiliation a lieu dans les délais prévus à l'art. 3, al. 1, l'assurance déploie ses effets dès la naissance ou la prise de domicile en Suisse. Le Conseil fédéral fixe le début de la couverture d'assurance pour les personnes désignées à l'art. 3, al. 3.

2 En cas d'affiliation tardive, l'assurance déploie ses effets dès l'affiliation. L'assuré doit verser un supplément de prime si le retard n'est pas excusable. Le Conseil fédéral fixe, à cette fin, des taux indicatifs en tenant compte du niveau des primes au lieu de résidence de l'assuré et de la durée du retard. Si le paiement du supplément de prime met l'assuré dans la gêne, l'assureur réduit ce montant en tenant compte équitablement de la situation de l'assuré et des circonstances du retard.

3 La couverture d'assurance prend fin lorsque l'assuré cesse d'être soumis à l'obligation de s'assurer.

I am not totally sure about that all is retroactive. I think it starts once you declare with Office Population , your residence. For the Health Insurance I just wonder if you didnt sign a contract , how can then charge you back dated? but same time, is if you dont ge the insurance by time of declared residency, the goverment will issue you more expensive insurance. And to get Legal residency, you need then also valid legal residnecy, not working permit but residency, because many people are married ot persons who have legal right to work, but the partners dont all have same rights.

Hi Catherine,

When we came to Geneva we had private international health insurance for the first three months.

After 3 months we signed up for the obligatory local health insurance (which, btw is twice as expensive while offering less benefits) and we did NOT have to backpay for the first 3 months.

Maybe if you can show that you had some other health insurance for the first 3 months you will not have to backpay.

Oded

I kept my UK private insurance going for a few years until a received a letter from the state saying that this was not correct and I had to take out obligatory health insurance. i got the feeling at the time that I could have been penalised (say a fine) but probably in the event that i did not comply immediately.  I did not argue and just took it out.  There was no retroactive payment or hint of such.  You could always try another insurance company

It's too late I guess for her. She has already started the insurance.

Hi everyone. I have similar question to you. I applied for my insurance in November 2014 to start it from December 2014. My insurance company is Assura. I received my insurance card on 19.01.2015!!! Almost 2 months later!!! I asked Assura to start my insurance from 01.12.2014 and seems like they started from that date. I couldn't go to a doctor in December and I got my policy number only on 9.01.2015 from my insurance agent. Assura sent me a bill to pay for free months(December,January,February). I don't see any sense to pay for December as I got my card and policy number 1,5 months later and was not able to go to doctor. What can I do in my case? Please advice. Thank you very much!