Foreign travel health insurance

Foreign travel health insurance is recommended for both shorter and longer trips. Otherwise, there is a risk of gaps in cover. When you are abroad, insurance is particularly important if you are visiting countries outside Europe where medical costs are higher than in Switzerland. There are also countries that require travel health insurance for entry visas. If you are travelling for work or studying abroad, travel health insurance may also be a mandatory requirement.

Yes, foreign travel health insurance is useful even in Europe because there can be gaps in cover here too. In EU/EFTA countries and the United Kingdom, Swiss basic insurance covers emergency treatment in the event of illness, accident or maternity. If further services, such as recovery, are required, this can be expensive. Foreign travel health insurance protects you against this risk. 

Good to know: What if you need medical treatment while travelling? Always take your insurance card (basic insurance) with you when travelling in an EU country. The information on the back (“European Health Insurance Card”) makes medical treatment and set-off easier in the event of emergencies within the EU. Travel insurance offers additional protection.

Even in Switzerland, it can be useful to have travel health insurance if you need emergency transport and have not taken out supplementary outpatient or hospital insurance. Transport is only partially covered by basic insurance; tourist and tourist subito cover additional or uncovered transport costs (minus the cost contribution from basic insurance).

Depending on whether you require permanent or short-term cover, Sympany offers two foreign travel health insurance policies that you can tailor to your needs. 

• tourist is suitable for anyone who wants permanent protection. On request, the travel health insurance is valid for 21 or 42 days of holiday per year.
• tourist subito can be taken out online in just a few minutes and insures last-minute travellers for 10 to 365 days.

Sympany’s travel health insurance covers international costs for outpatient and inpatient emergency treatment in the event of illness, accident or premature birth, which are not covered by compulsory basic and accident insurance. Search, recovery and rescue operations are also covered, as is hospital transport and return transport to Switzerland. Sympany also organises and finances visits and extra return journeys for relatives.

In the event of a medical emergency abroad, basic insurance contributes towards necessary outpatient treatment and hospital stays in a general ward. In EU/EFTA countries and the United Kingdom, the list of services and the co-payment of the respective destination country apply. In other countries, a maximum of twice the costs that would be reimbursed for treatment in Switzerland are covered. If you incur higher costs or require additional services such as rescue operations or emergency transport, you will have to pay for them yourself. Travel health insurance protects you against these financial consequences.