Although it has been prohibited since 2024, brokers are still contacting policyholders, dangling various benefits in front of them, reveals FINMA, which admits it is powerless to stop them.
Since 1 September 2024, health insurance companies have no longer been allowed to use intermediaries to directly solicit policyholders who have never been customers of the insurance company in question or who have not been customers for more than three years. Nevertheless, policyholders continue to be victims of this ‘cold calling’ during the period when premiums for the coming year are announced, reports today’s SonntagsBlick.
A study by Deloitte reveals that 40% of those surveyed received a sales call related to health insurance this year. And since September 2024, the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA), which ensures compliance with the law in the lucrative supplementary insurance segment, has received 335 reports of such illegal calls.
Despite the risk of a £100,000 fine and the threat of having their licence to practise revoked, brokers continue to promise attractive benefits – gym memberships, reimbursement for alternative medicine, etc. – because it can be very lucrative for them: for each new contract, health insurance companies pay them a commission of several thousand pounds!
Evidence difficult to establish
Ursula Keel, spokesperson for FINMA, points out that investigations are long and complex, as some salespeople operate from call centres based abroad, which makes it difficult to establish evidence. Moreover, no court decision has yet been handed down since the ban on such sales practices.
Aware of its limited resources, given that tracking down abuses requires considerable means, FINMA is urging health insurance companies to abandon these unfair practices. But even if this tarnishes the image of insurers, policyholders should still expect to receive regular unsolicited advertising calls, concludes the Sunday newspaper.
