This is a long weekend here in almost the entire Europe. It means lots of tourists everywhere, full supermarkets and shops, and to complete, good weather! It is a 3 days long weekend. Not bad, uh!?
One of the things Switzerland is famous for is its health insurance. That is it!It is completely different from the American, Canadian (a very good one) or Hungarian one.
You have two types: the compulsory basic one and the extra. The basic is very "cheap", minimum around 280 Swiss francs (sfr) and it includes very few things like if you need to sleep in the hospital you will stay in a room with more people, and the money the health company will start paying your doctor and hospital bills for you will be after you already payed from 1500 sfr or more. It is like a car insurance, this treshhold is called franchise and the higher it is, cheaper will be your monthly payment.
If you want the extra insurance, you will pay a little bit more, but you can choose to stay in a single or double room in a hospital, you can choose homeopathy doctor, or even some basic dentistry. But just basic. Some of the Swiss go to dentist tours to the east Europe because it is veeeeery expensive.
What makes the price change so much? The provider, the age, and the type of doctor you want to choose are definitely 3 factors. First, you have a lot of options for companies, each of with different packages in different cities, Geneva is one of the most expensive ones (unfortunately).
The age? Yes, two expensive times of our lives for this issue is when one is around 30-35 AND woman (because there is the danger of pregnancy) and when one is already over 50 years old. Not enough that we reach this age, but we have to pay more? Not fair!
The other factor is the type of doctor visit you want. You can choose a doctor, that is the most expensive! The company chooses the doctor for you, this is cheaper, or, third type, whenever you are sick you call a doc line and they will decide where you should go and IF you should go, I think this is the cheapest. Most of the cases, except for obi-gyn and ophtalmologist, you have to visit a doctor who wil decide to which doc to send you in case you need a gastroenterologist or neurologist.
Either ways, not easy to choose which one you take.
NOw, if you don't have insurance, which is obligatory, your pocket will hurt a lot in case you need a doctor. Just a visit costs minimum 120 sfr and pluses...
So, be healthy and take care!
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