How do you feel about U.S. policies after living abroad? Disappointed.

Moving Abroad: It can change your view of your own country’s policies. The Frau speaks from experience. When she lived in Switzerland and experienced Swiss policies personally, she was constantly contemplating and comparing them with her homeland’s. Her overall conclusion? The U.S. has a lot of catching up to do in its compassion for its people.

Lady Liberty…as seen from a road in France.

Take paid leave. The Frau never considered how important it was until she had her daughter. Sitting on the couch in her Swiss apartment seven weeks after giving birth, tears flowed constantly. She was sometimes still in pain and was also having problems feeding her daughter, who, at six pounds, still couldn’t seem to gain weight. The Frau couldn’t imagine going back to work at that point. And with Switzerland’s 16-week maternity leave (14 weeks of it were paid), she didn’t have to. In fact, by law, she couldn’t. Forever grateful for giving birth abroad, it made The Frau wonder why the U.S. is still questioning paid family and medical leave. And it also made her feel that her own country, as the only high-income country in the world not to grant paid family and medical leave to its citizens, was grossly behind in its compassion for its people. She was glad (but also, in a way, very sad) that another country treated her better as a new parent than her own would have.

Then there was healthcare. In Switzerland, health insurance is mandatory, offered by privately owned companies, and never tied to employment. The fact that health insurance is independent of work means that when someone in Switzerland loses their job, decides to try being a freelancer, decides to stay home with their children, or heck, decides travel the world for half a year, they have the ability to do so without worrying about a loss of healthcare coverage. When The Frau was laid off from her job as a copywriter in Switzerland in 2009, she never had to worry about losing her heath insurance (or paying for it, since Swiss unemployment pays a minimum of 70% of your salary for 18 months). The Swiss healthcare system gives its people a freedom that The Frau, like many Americans who have stayed in unfortunate jobs due to health insurance reasons, had never experienced.

Finally, guns. The Frau didn’t like being surrounded by so many guns in Switzerland (the Swiss are 4^th in the world in guns per capita—behind the U.S., Yemen, and Syria), but they were a part of the Swiss military and civilian responsibility, so she learned to accept them.

Switzerland has similar freedoms to the United States concerning gun ownership. Like Americans, the Swiss have gun ownership rights and the right to carry them in public. Switzerland had one mass shooting in 2001, which killed 14 and injured 18, but even after that, an anti-gun referendum failed to pass. According to a piece in Time by Helena Bachmann which sited government figures, violent crime in Switzerland is 10 times less than it is in the U.S. Maybe it helps that in Switzerland, heavy machine guns and automatic weapons are banned. Another idea a more compassionate America could adopt.

But enough about how The Frau feels after living abroad. Here’s a piece The Frau wrote for VICE last week about how other Americans feel about their own country's gun policies after living abroad.

Eight Things to Love about Switzerland, Part II

The Frau celebrated eight years in Switzerland two weeks ago. In honor of that milestone, she’s put together a list of eight things she loves about Switzerland. Today she’ll conclude with the last four. To read the first four, click here.

Baden, Switzerland
Photo by Brian Opyd

Five: Health insurance is not tied to employment. And it’s mandatory.

What happens when health insurance is tied to employment? Well, apparently if you’re in the US and work for a company like Hobby Lobby, they can deny you your legal right to contraception in their health policy because of their personal religious beliefs. Would this ever happen in Switzerland? No way. Health insurance is private; it has nothing to do with your employer, and everyone is required to have it whether they like it or not. This does a lot for costs savings and equality, since unlike in America, the people who pay for health insurance aren’t also paying for those who forgo it even though everyone has health issues. And it also means you don’t have job stress. Swiss people often quit their jobs to travel or reevaluate their lives or start a business. All while keeping their health insurance. Which brings The Frau back to point one: Freedom.

Six: Punctuality is valued.

You never have to wonder whether someone will come on time or not in Switzerland. Ten seconds late is late. Why is this great? When time is valued, you don’t tend to waste it. The Swiss are a productive country for a reason.

Seven: It’s clean. No really, it’s clean.

Switzerland is the only country The Frau knows of where she’d actually take a shower in a parking garage. Or let Toddler M continue to eat the apple she dropped on the floor of a bus. Or find a sparkling clean bathroom in the middle of nowhere. Clean is nice. And also too easy to take for granted sometimes, especially after you’ve been living here awhile.

Eight: Towns and cities are built for walkers.

Cars are required by law to stop for pedestrians at zebra crossings. Lights are timed to make driving suck as much as possible in Swiss cities. And parking costs are high. Why? Switzerland isn’t a driving country; it’s a walking one. If the laws and hiking signs aren’t proof, then the example set by The Frau is. 

The Frau walks to buy groceries. The Frau walks to buy clothes. The Frau walks to buy electronics. The Frau walks to the train. To the bus. To the library. To the post office. To the pool. There’s almost nothing she needs that is not within walking distance. Not only are all of these walkable Swiss cities and towns pleasant to live in, but when a city is walkable, it cuts down on car pollution, congestion, and noise too.

What else do you love about Switzerland?

Oh, by the way, if you love reading about Switzerland you might also like The Frau’s book, Swiss Life: 30 Things I Wish I’d Known. Just a totally unsubtle hint.

Dear Frau: Compare U.S. and Swiss Health Insurance

Welcome to another edition of Dear Frau. It’s kind of like Dear Abby, except with an international twist. Remember, if you have a question about moving to Switzerland or living in Switzerland, don’t hesitate to contact the Frau.

Dear Frau,

Did you visit Switzerland often before moving there? And how does health insurance in Switzerland compare to the U.S.?

Thanks,

Interested in Switzerland

Dear Interested in Switzerland,

Whew. Short questions. Long answers…

Visiting Switzerland

The Frau had been to Switzerland three times before she moved there. She did the whirlwind, “Everything you need to know about Switzerland is in Lucerne” Globus bus tour of Europe in 2001. She never imagined living in Switzerland at that point. All she did during that trip was swim with the swans in Lake Lucerne and run around the Alpine meadows singing, “The hills are alive…” (Never mind that The Sound of Music takes place in Austria. To the Frau at that point, Switzerland and Austria were one in the same).

The Frau did another tour of Switzerland in 2005 when Mr. Frau came to Switzerland for a business trip. This visit was slightly more serious, since at that point the Frau and Mr. Frau knew a couple that had moved to Switzerland with the company Mr. Frau worked for. Mr. and Mrs. Frau met this couple for dinner. It got them thinking.

Finally, in May 2006, the Frau sealed her Swiss fate with a trip to Switzerland to (gulp) find an apartment. The Frau was really going to move there. And she was really going to become a (gulp, gulp, gulp) trailing spouse for the next three years.

Anyway, let’s fast-forward six + years (yes, the Frau has greatly overstayed her welcome) and answer the next part of the question. The answer, as you can imagine when dealing with health insurance, is somewhat complicated. The Frau is no expert, but she’ll try her best to explain the main differences.

Health Insurance in Switzerland

First of all, healthcare costs in Switzerland are typically less than in the United States. When traveling outside of Switzerland, regular Swiss insurers will pay up to two times the cost that the same procedure would have cost in Switzerland. BUT…and here’s the amazing thing…the United States as seen as so extreme when it comes to healthcare costs, that unbelievably, two times the Swiss cost is not seen as adequate. So the Frau and her family also have “World insurance” in addition to their regular Swiss insurance so they are fully covered in the United States since they do visit home at least once a year.

Here are some basic differences between the two systems:

One: Swiss health insurance is not tied to employment. This means you must take on all costs of health insurance yourself. The employer pays nothing (except usually they pay for accident insurance, which is also a mandatory part of Swiss health insurance). Regular health insurance costs can vary widely depending on your plan. You are free to choose both your insurer and your plan. In general, basic health insurance in Switzerland with a CHF 2,500 deductible will probably cost between CHF 150-225 per adult, per month. Swiss salaries are typically higher than U.S. salaries though, so in this sense, they help you pay for things like health insurance. The good part about having insurance not tied to a job is that when you lose a job or want to work part-time, you always have your health insurance. It allows employees much more freedom and flexibility, even though paying it from your own pocket can feel much more painful.

Two: Swiss health insurance is mandatory. You can’t decide you don’t want it. If you don’t sign yourself up for Swiss insurance within three months of moving here (or prove you have international insurance through an expatriate company program), the Swiss government will sign you up. Now before you scream socialism, think about it: it’s actually a good thing for health insurance to be mandatory. Everyone needs healthcare. And if everyone has it, then the insured won’t also be paying for the uninsured.

Three: Dental and eye insurance is pretty non-existent in Switzerland. You can pay extra to have it, but most plans are really, really bad. This is one area the Frau thinks Switzerland could do better in. Because in the U.S., she always had good dental and eye care which at least covered yearly or bi-yearly check-ups. In Switzerland, these kinds of visits are paid completely out of pocket.

Four: Standards of healthcare are as high or higher than in the United States. Appointments are typically easy to obtain in Switzerland. During visits, patients sit at a desk with their doctors and discuss problems before anyone undresses. It feels like a more human approach to the Frau and she also finds that Swiss doctors listen more than American doctors and order fewer pointless medical tests as a result.

Five: Like in the United States, healthcare costs are rising fast in Switzerland. The Frau’s premiums will go up by about 10% next year…and there’s nothing she can do about it.

How much will you pay for Swiss insurance? In general, you should expect to pay at least CHF 5,000 per person per year on healthcare in Switzerland. (Note that costs for children are much lower).

Anyone else want to chime in on healthcare differences/similarities between the U.S. and Switzerland? 

Readers in Switzerland: Has the Frau given a good estimate of healthcare costs in Switzerland?