No pardon in the fight for insured persons
Many people know this: you come home from work in the evening tired and the phone is ringing. It also rings again and again until they finally answer. The caller is an insurance broker who wants to win new customers with his advertising call. But this is seldom crowned with success, because most of the time the people who are called only get angry and hardly react to the promotional offers.
The health insurance associations Curafutura and Santésuisse now want to take action against this and stop the fight for customers. An amendment to the law by the federal government should help, as well as a new catalog of fines.
New agreement in the fight against annoying advertising calls
The industry agreement that is now to be signed is not, however, a duty, but is based on the principle of voluntariness. Nevertheless, all health insurance companies have signed up so far, the only exception being Sanitas. From 2021, the new concept is to be implemented, in which cold calling is prohibited. This means that calls to potential insured persons are only possible if there has been prior contact with this customer.
This is intended to prevent unwanted calls, especially since it is only rarely serious brokers who call potential new customers. The media spokesman for Santésuisse, Matthias Müller, also said that the new agreement made it possible to impose fines. So far, this has not been feasible and so everyone involved is hoping that the new agreement can actually be implemented.
The industry association agreement also deals with the commissions brokers receive for signing new insurance contracts. The new procedure stipulates that the commissions are capped and that the health insurance companies may charge a maximum of CHF 70 for basic insurance. The premiums for taking out supplementary insurance have also been capped, with the maximum being set at an annual premium.
However, this is not enough for the Consumer Protection Foundation. Here it is assumed that basic insurance should be possible without any commission. The reason: With the commission, the health insurers have a means in hand to dispute or poach the insured against each other. However, this should only be possible due to the services offered. In the opinion of the Foundation, no entire annual premium should be set as a commission for supplementary insurance either, but a few hundred francs should be enough.
The federal government is threatening sanctions
With the validity of the new agreement, health insurers can also be asked to pay if they violate the law against unfair competition. Companies that have collected data without permission must therefore expect sanctions. This applies, for example, when a Swiss health insurance company works with a call center from abroad and gets addresses and telephone numbers here. So far, the health insurance company has not been able to be held accountable for this, but this is possible with the agreement that will now apply from 2021.
In addition, there will be a further regulation by July 2021 at the latest, with which the telecommunications companies in Switzerland are to be made responsible. They should technically implement so-called call filters, which is required by the new telecommunications law. Sunrise and Swisscom have already retrofitted, at UPC and Salt the new provision has yet to be implemented.
Conclusion: No chance for annoying advertising callers
From 2021, it will be difficult for bothersome brokers: They have to expect sanctions and even fines if they harass potential insured persons on the phone. Obtaining data from foreign credit agencies will also be made a criminal offense in future.
