Climbing centers health insurance coverage?

Are climbing center memberships covered by Swiss health insurance policies?

Kind regards

Gym membership contributions have become a regular feature on health insurance policies in Switzerland. However, climbing enthusiasts stand to benefit from a much less common benefit offered by a handful of Swiss health insurance policies.

Currently only two Swiss health insurance policies pay a contribution towards climbing center memberships. These policies are the Completa Praeventa supplementary health insurance policy from SWICA and the OPTIMA supplementary health insurance policy from SWICA. Each of these optional health insurance policies comes with an annual contribution of 300 Swiss francs towards rock climbing center memberships. 

The SWICA Completa Praeventa policy covers 50% of climbing center memberships, up to a maximum of 300 francs per year. The SWICA OPTIMA policy is more generous, covering 90% of the cost of memberships, up to a maximum contribution of 300 francs per year.

Best regards,

Moneyguru

Thanks, which climbing centers are eligible anyway?

Only a limited number of Swiss climbing centers are eligible for the SWICA contribution. While all SWICA partners are certified members of the Swiss climbing center association (IG Kletteranlagen/CI Murs d’escalade), not all members of that association are SWICA partners.

According to Swica, the following climbing centers are SWICA partners:

Canton of Zurich: Kletterzentrum Gaswerk in Schlieren; GRIFFIG in Uster; Grindelboulder in Bassersdorf; Kletterzentrum Milandia in Greifensee.

Canton of Bern: O’BLOC in Ostermundigen; K44 in Interlaken.

Canton of Luzern: Cityboulder in Kriens; Pilatus Indoor (Root D4).

Other locations: grimper.ch in Givisiez (Canton of Fribourg), grimper.ch in Echandens (near Lausanne), AP'N DAUN (Chur), aranea+ (Schaffhausen), Die Kletterhalle (St.Gallen), Kraftreaktor (Lenzburg). 

Thanks. Are the climbing benefits worth the insurance premiums anyway? What do you think?

A 30 to 40 year old adult living in Zurich can expect to pay a monthly premium of 12.20 francs for a Completa Praeventa policy from SWICA which also contributes 500 francs towards preventative medical checkups every 3 years and 200 francs towards inoculations every calendar year. That premium comes to 144 francs per year. If you spend at least 600 francs on climbing center membership every year then getting that policy will help you save 154 francs (300 francs towards climbing every year minus the 144 francs you spend on annual premiums).

The catch is that Complementa Praeventa coverage only comes as a rider with the Completa Top outpatient insurance policy, which costs just over 24.40 francs per month. Together, the premium comes to 36.60 francs per month, or 439.20 francs per year. That means you still pay 139.20 francs on top of the maximum climbing membership contribution of 300 francs. However, you get solid coverage in addition to the climbing benefit, including search and rescue cost coverage and emergency transportation coverage in Switzerland and when traveling abroad, coverage for alternative medical treatments and medicines which are not covered by compulsory health insurance, a 200-franc contribution towards contact lenses or glasses every 3 years, 30 francs per day towards eligible spa visits (maximum 30 days per year) and more.

The Optima policy from SWICA extends the coverage you get from the Completa Praeventa policy, and costs 34.90 francs per month (418.80 francs per year) for a 30-40 year old living in Zurich. The Optima rider covers 90% of the cost of annual memberships at climbing centers, up to a maximum contribution of 300 francs per year.

That means you pay 118.80 francs in addition to the maximum climbing contribution you receive. This contribution can be combined with the contribution you get from the Completa Praeventa policy for a maximum of 600 francs in benefits towards the cost of your climbing center membership. Here too, you get a lot of additional coverage which extends what you get with the Completa policies, including another 500 francs towards contact lenses and glasses every 3 years, full coverage for alternative outpatient therapy from eligible therapists, up to 800 francs towards fitness training and sports memberships (including the 300 francs towards climbing) and an extra 30 francs per day towards eligible spa visits (max. 30 days per year).

Good to know: The comprehensive health insurance comparison on moneyland.ch makes it easy to find out how SWICA’s basic mandatory health insurance premiums compare to other offers.

If you were to take out both the Completa and Optima coverages, you would pay 858 francs in premiums every year for your supplementary health insurance coverage. The maximum climbing benefit you could get is 600 francs. Taking the 50% and 90% limits of the coverage into account, you would have to spend around 935 francs per year on climbing center memberships to get the full 600-franc benefit. For reference, an unlimited annual membership for the Gaswerk climbing center in Schlieren (Zurich) costs 1090 francs, while a limited membership (1 evening per week) costs 980 francs.

The verdict:

If your primary goal is to get more climbing for your money, getting insurance policies with climbing benefits is not the way to go because you pay more than you get in climbing membership benefits. However, if you want the coverage which you get with supplementary health insurance policies anyway, the benefits which you receive towards your climbing center membership can cut the cost of getting that coverage in a big way. In the case of the policies mentioned above, subtracting the 600-franc combined climbing benefits from the combined cost of the policies (around 935 francs per year) would leave you with solid health insurance coverage and many useful benefits for just 335 francs per year (around 28 francs per month).