This is how health insurance comparison services work

November 30 is the deadline for switching health insurance companies. Since the premiums will increase again next year, it is useful to make a comparison. Depending on age and place of residence, several thousand francs beckon you every year. Comparison portals on the Internet should help with this. But not all are equally good and suitable for all customers. Blick shows you how portals work and what distinguishes individual providers from each other.

This is how portals work

Basically portals are based on the same principle and give the same results. You enter your age, gender and zip code – that’s all the data needed for the calculation. The computer then spits out the cheapest offers from the insurers on the relevant insurance model.

So, when a portal requests email addresses and full addresses, it is only for collecting data later or sending offers. One such portal is krankenkassencheck.ch.

Many portals also want to sell insurance directly and also offer offers from health insurance companies if desired after comparison. This is how these providers make their money. A commission is taken from the health insurance company for each accepted offer.

Individual portals can do this

Anyone looking for an independent provider can use priminfo.ch, which is funded by the federal government. Calculator provides comparisons for all families. No ads. You cannot change the fuse directly.

Another alternative is ad-free swupp.ch. Here, too, I evaluate cash registers and request that the forms be changed if necessary. You can also compare several at once, which is suitable for families.

A nice extra: You can see at a glance how many people are insured with the insurance company, how long the average repayment takes, and how efficiently the insurance company is working (administrative costs per person). Here, too, cash registers pay commission for accepted offers, but the calculator always shows the most favorable results first.

Insurance companies’ own comparison portals, for example from CSS, only compare and mediate their own insurance offers. This is only useful if you are happy with your insurance company, but perhaps want to switch to a cheaper model or another franchise.

Attention ad

Many comparison portals have advertising deals with health insurance companies and prefer to broker their partners’ insurance companies. For example, the well-known online comparison portalComparis. They describe themselves independently, but their partners’ offers are displayed at the top. Even if there are cheaper payments. After all, the comparison portal transparently portrays sponsorship as an “advertisement”.

Either way, it’s worth taking a closer look and even consulting two or three different calculators. That’s how you find the cheapest offers and you can switch immediately depending on the comparison portal.