Optimize your mandatory health insurance deductible
Stop paying more than necessary, and optimize now your yearly health insurance expenses!
What is the franchise or deductible?
In the world of the Swiss mandatory health insurance, it is important to understand what is the franchise. This term represents the maximum portion of healthcare costs that you, as the insured individual, pay out of your own pocket per year. The Federal Health Insurance Act discloses several deductible levels. You can choose every year what is the best deductible for you. The higher your chosen deductible, the lower your insurance premium. So how do you understand what is the ideal deductible for you? Let's say you have a total bill for your medical expenses for a given year of 1000 CHF. If your franchise is 300 CHF, you would have to pay the first 300 CHF out of your pocket. Of the remaining 700 CHF (1000 minus the 300 paid), by law you still need to participate into this expense and cover 10% of it (up to the maximum participation of 700 CHF), so you will have to pay an additional 70 CHF.How do I find out the best deductible for me?
First of all, you need to collect a few information, including your insurance premium, and your expected medical expenses for the year. Then you can simulate a few scenarios. We reccomend you to test out at least three scenarios.- A scenario where you incur no medical expenses at all! You are healthy for the whole year, well done!
- A scenario where you incur your planned medical expenses.
- A scenario where you incur highly then normal medical expenses, let's say an unexpected 5'000 to 10'000 CHF.