[Culturechat] Vance Roy/health care

[Vance Roy]

Dan and Roseanne Hudson wrote:

> Was wondering what the health care system is like there for senior citizens.
> Do you have universal health care?  Our health care here is quite costly
> particularly since significant other has retired.
> The Hudsons


As far as I know, there is no such insurance in CH comparable to 
Medicare or Medicaid in the USA. There is universal health care coverage 
here. Every person living here must have health care insurance meeting 
certain requirements. There is a means test that will allow the premiums 
to be supplemented if a person or a family have income below a certain 
level. That would not apply to non-residents such as myself, since we 
are, as a visa requirement, required to show financial independence. I 
know a Swiss couple that are about 70. They pay about 8500 CHF per year 
for top health insurance.

I have to wonder if such a system in the USA wouldn't cut out a lot of 
the bureaucracy existent today in the two systems. It also covers everybody

Vance Roy
gigli.saw@dplanet.ch.