WHAT INSURANCE DO YOU NEED?

First of all we are not Insurance specialists.

But we do have a few key bits of information about insurance that trainees need before they join a course.

We also won’t recommend an insurer – because we aren’t legally allowed to.

But we can certainly point you in the direction of insurers who have previously been used by trainees.

Crucially you need to make the decision about which insurance policy you choose, and what cover options you select. Much as we want to advise you on this it’s not our area of professional expertise so legally we can only give you an overview.

So here is a summary and a few explanations.

INSURANCE (COMPLEX STUFF)
BUT HERE ARE A FEW POINTERS

There are different aspects of any insurance policy. And we know it’s a very complex world.

But we ask all trainees to have the following insurance before they start skiing:

• Health and Accident Insurance (covering skiing and off-piste skiing)
• Personal Liability or Civil Liability Insurance

Make sure your policy will be valid for a longer duration – so the full duration of your course or the full duration of your season.

We also suggest you have a policy that covers the following items:

• Curtailment cover
• Cancelation cover
• Travel cover
• Theft and Loss cover

Here’s why…

HEALTH AND ACCIDENT INSURANCE (REQUIRED)

This is fairly obvious, but you need some kind of sinsurance to cover any doctors or hospital bills.

We need to know you are insured so we won’t end up receiving a bill if you need treatment.

More importantly we don’t want you not being able to get the correct treatment due to being uninsured.

An EHIC or GHIC card is now accepted in Switzerland for health insurance and accident insurance – but we recommend you consider the level of cover it offers as you might want extra cover.

You will usually be asked to pay an excess when you use your GHIC. This is usually a fixed amount of about 90 CHF.

Remember a GHIC or EHIC does not replace insurance cover for other areas like Liability of Travel etc.

It’s important that any policy covers you for skiing and off-piste skiing.

As is usually the case, the Travel and Health and Skiing insurance are simply different parts of the same policy.

LIABILITY INSURANCE (REQUIRED)

This is often wrapped up in a Travel policy, but we need to know that if you crash into someone on the mountain – perhaps a fellow trainee, a coach or just another skier – then you are covered to pay their medical bills and cover any loss of earnings, etc.

It’s a vital bit of cover and if you don’t have it you are open to legal action from the person you injure.

So it’s really important for us to know that you have it.

CURTAILMENT AND CANCELATION COVER

This is simply an optional insurance to cover you if you cannot start or cannot finish the course.

With a policy like this you can claim some of the course costs back from the insurance.

TRAVEL COVER

This is a broad policy, but travel Insurance is advised to cover you for your travel to and from your course, as well as for the duration of it.

Travel policies usually cover quite a few aspects of the insurance you need for your course.

THEFT AND LOSS COVER

As with all these things, we hope you simply won’t need the cover. But it’s a good idea and well worth it should you lose any valuables or have something stolen on the course.

SWISS POLICIES

Some trainees might get a Swiss Health and Accident policy for their course – perhaps as a requirement for Visa or residence permit (usually called LAMAL).

It’s important to understand this is not enough for your course on it’s own.

It will certainly cover you for medical costs, but you still need Laibility cover and cover for off-piste activities.

LIFT PASS INSURANCE

We supply almost all trainees with a lift pass for the course. We do not, as standard, get any additional insurance on the pass.

These extra policies sometimes simply duplicate cover you already have, but if you want the extra lift pass cover you can simply do this direct with the lift company once you arrive.