Most countries have one health insurance that covers everything. However, in Switzerland the accident and health insurances are separate. In this blog post we will explain the difference between accident and sickness to help everyone who is not familiar with the Swiss health system decide which insurance to contact.
Sickness – Definition
Sickness is a physical or mental impairment that did not occur as a result of an accident, and requires an immediate medical examination or results in an inability to work. Put simply: Everything that is not classed as an accident goes under sickness.
Accident – Definition
The following attributes must all apply for a situation to be classed as an accident:
1. Sudden effect: It only happens once and usually only lasts a few seconds or minutes.
2. Unintentional: This means, that the person who experienced the accident did not intend to cause damage to his health.
3. Influence of an external force: This is one of the major factors of an accident. An object outside the body must have impacted the person. If someone has a scare and injures themselves, then this is also classed as an external force affecting the mind.
4. Unusual: This point refers to the situation itself and not to the medical consequences. If something happens that is clearly not part of the person’s daily life, then it is unusual.
If you have an accident in Switzerland, the doctor or hospital staff will ask you for the name of your accident insurance. If you are employed by Coopers you are insured via SUVA, the biggest accident insurance company in Switzerland.
Did you know…?
Even if you just have a small accident (that does not stop you from going to work), the accident insurance covers the cost of your medication. So we recommend that you keep all your pharmacy receipts and send them in to us. We will then send it off to the SUVA together with the accident report.
