Private Medical Insurance

[fishandchips]

Thank you everyone I will check locally in the country where I plan to be resident as to what is on offer in terms of medical insurance.

[RasputinDude]

Recommend TK if you're in Germany, although public it's private by UK standards. Now you can pay more and go private, but if you're young fit and healthy, I'd spend the money on beer instead.

Totally this. My family is insured with TK and without doubt it is the best of the German public insurers.

Having lived out of the UK for a few years, I now have strong opinions on "the envy of the world".

[BR14]

In my experience, they merely check whether you are registered with a local doctor. I doubt they have any way of verifying your tax status, and even if they did I doubt they have either the time or the inclination to do that. And most hospitals don't seem to have grasped the concept of billing "foreigners", let alone have a process for actually doing it.

In NL CH and DE they do IME. you have to show an insurance card before any treatment is started.
Otherwise you're liable for costs and will be billed.

[GreyWolf]

In Switzerland you have 90 days after registering as a resident to buy health insurance. If you don't, the Kanton buys it for you and sends you the bill. They don't bother to shop around for the best deal so it's in your interests to buy it yourself.

Some Kantons will allow residents to have foreign health insurance cover instead of using a local provider but it has to meet Swiss standards so that rules out most British policies.

Accident insurance is separate and will be provided by your employer. If you don't have an employer you can add it to your health insurance or, if you're just temporarily between jobs, buy it yourself from SUVA for not very much.

Both accident and health insurance are compulsory.

I believe the usual procedure for unregistered (and undocumented for that matter) residents is for the hospital to buy insurance for anyone who turns up in a mangled state. That way they're only on the hook for the premium not the total cost of treatment if it turns out the patient can't pay. It's then up to the patient and the insurance company to sort it out.