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feel free to post there) specifically about the HEALTH care system:
   - since 1997 the health insurance is compulsory, yet still in
     private hands (corporations which must be ruled specially under
     governmental control compete in the health insurance market).
   - only the basic coverage is compulsory and standard. All the add-ons
     can vary from insurance to insurance in content.
   - the price of the basic coverage depends on the canton (state), and
     on other parameters, within specific rules. Also, there is a
     minimal amount which must be paid (``franchise''). This can be
     set as wanted (minimal for 98 is 150 SFR I think). The bigger,
     the smaller the insurance fees.

This system is rather new and has a lot of problems. Added to the fact
that Switzerland has very high medical costs (induced by a lot
(too much?) of hospital capacity and physicians) and that most of
the costs are state-induced (private insurers must make their clients
pay for those very costly public hospitals), it gives an expensive
system, which might get better --- currently it is getting worse,
especially for the non-rural cantons.
     
Hazard insurance (at work) is separat, as is welfare. Both are compulsory
and state-handled.

The professional hazard insurance is compulsory, and paid by the
employer. The non-professional insurance is compulsory when you work
more than 12 hours per week, and your employer might or might not
pay it for you. This is around 1.1 and 2% of the income.

Welfare (AVS (retirement), AI (disability), APG (military insurance))
is around 10.1 of your income.  Unemployment insurance is another
3%. Half is paid by the employer.

4.  Swiss institutions and products abroad
4.1 Swiss institutions/products in the US

There are several Swiss tourist offices in the US even though it seems
that some have closed recently (e.g. in San Francisco (?)).

    Chicago:
             Suite 2930
             150 North Michigan Avenue
             Chicago, IL 60601
             Tel (312) 630 5840  Fax  630 5848

    LA:
             222 No. Sepulveda Blvd, Suite 1570
             El Segundo, Los Angeles, CA 90245
             Tel  (310) 335 5980  Fax 335 5982

    NY: 
             Swiss National Tourist Office
             Swiss Center, 608 Fifth Avenue
             New York, NY 10020
             Tel  (212) 757 5944  Fax 262 6116

Swiss consulates:
   New York: Rolex Building, 665 5th Av (8th floor), (212) 758 2560
   Chicago: 737 North Michigan Avenue, (312) 915 0061
   Washington DC:
   San Francisco
   Los Angeles

Other numbers:
   Swissair: 800 221 4750

4.2 Swiss institutions/products in Australia

Embassy of Switzerland:
   Canberra: 7, Melbourne Avenue, Forrest, ACT 2603, +61.6.2733977

Swiss consulates:
   Melbourne: Consulate General of Switzerland, PO Box 7026, Melbourne,
              Vic 3004, +61.3.8672266

4.3 Other countries

Swiss National Tourist Office in Canada (the Swiss Consulate General is
                                         next door)
    Toronto:
             154, University avenue, Suite 610
             Toronto  M5H 3Y9
             Tel  (416) 971 9734  Fax 971 6425

In Japan:

    Tokyo:
             CS-Tower, 2nd floor
             1-11-30 Akasaka, Minato-ku
             Tokyo 107
             Tel  (03) 35 89 55 88  Fax 32 24 08 00

Great Britain:

    London:
             Swiss Centre, Swiss Court, W1V8EE
             Tel (171) 734 19 21
             Fax (171) 437 45 77

Thailand:

    Bangkok:
	     35, North Wireless Road
	     BANGKOK Thailand - 10330
	     Tel. 02 - 253-0156
	     FAX  02 - 255-4481


4.4 Swiss products

The swiss products usually can be recognized with the ``arbalete''
(crossbow) weapon (but this is not nowadays a certain label).

There is a move towards protecting the ``Swiss Army Label'', reserving
it to Swiss companies making their production mainly in Switzerland.
It should not be necessary to state that Swiss soldier *do not* have
the luxury knives sold under that label :-)

5.  More information

More information can be found on WWW from the Switzerland Home Page,
    http://heiwww.unige.ch/switzerland/

There are some books which may be interesting (more are listed through
the document):
   "Das neue Profil der Schweiz", Hans Tschaeni, Werd Verlag, 1990, also
                                  available in French.
   "La Suisse - de la formation des
    Alpes a la quete du futur", Ex Libris, 1975. 

About Swiss culture and military (in English):
    "La Place de la Concorde Suisse" 

The "Annuaire statistique de la Suisse" is available in German
or in French in most bookshops (in CH). You can also find more
Swiss statistics at the following addresses:

    http://www.zahlenspiegel.ch/  (German language)
    http://www.statistique.ch/    (French version)

A real good source for Swiss and foreign maps is:
   Kuemmerly & Frey
   Geographischer Verlag
   Hallerstrasse 10
   CH-3012 Bern
   http://tbw.ch/kufrei/

For all official Swiss maps, check for http://www.swisstopo.ch/
especially http://www.swisstopo.ch/en/maps/maps.htm (yes, it is
really .htm, not .html).

Touristical information can be asked there:

    Swiss Hotel Association
    Monbijoustrasse 130
    P.O.Box
    3001 Bern
    Tel (031) 370 4111  Fax  370 4444

    Switzerland Tourism
    Bellariastrasse 38
    Postfach
    8027 Zurich
    Tel (01) 288 1111  Fax  288 1205


6.  Credits

Some of the following people contributed large parts of this document.
Using the following information for mailing-lists or junk mail is
of course forbidden. This information is of course also protected
under the Berne convention.

Marcel BIGGER 
Andrew MALAKOFF 
Ulrich SCHLAEPFER 
Sarah EGGLESTON 
Colleen D. WIRTH 
Urs GEISER 
Hansruedi HEEB 
Sven FELDMANN 
Thomas J. GROB 
Nicola Tristian MARZOLINO 
Ernest BLASCHKE 
Dan POP 
Christian Michel ZIMMERMANN 
Leopoldo GHIELMETTI 
Emmanuel BAECHLER 
Wissenschaftliches Rechnen 2/wr44 
Eric von DAENIKEN 
Olivier BYRDE 
Patrik Rene Celeste REALI 
Peter M. KELLER 
Yvan BOTTERON 
Vlad LISSINE 
Julius HEINIS 
Oswald WYLER 
Marc STEINLIN 
Werlin/Paris 
C. Malte LEWAN 
Jason W. KING 
Klaus-F. AUGUSTINY 
Andreas KARRER 
Andre-Pierre BENGUEREL 
Achille A. CASTIONI 
Christoph KAUFMANN <100652.3517@Compuserve.com.spam.not.welcome.ch>
Thomas STRICKER 
Gaelle VANHOVE 
Margaret Frances DISBURY 
Nicole BERNOUILLI 
Heinz GASSER 
Tom WAUGH 
Ben den BUTTER 
Lorenzo DE CARLI 
Tiziano BIANCHI 
Marc SCHEUNER 
Geoffrey KLEIN 
Wolf SCHWEITZER 
Stefano UNTERNAEHRER 
Mark Edward HARRISON 
Stephan Kocher 

Reviewers:
   Tom BUTZ 
   Samir KASME 
   Jean-Emmanuel ROTZETTER 
   Bob DOMBROSKI 


$Id: ALPHAMonthly18,v 1.16 2002/03/03 17:57:55 admin Exp $	

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