Guide

How much does a doctor’s visit cost in Switzerland, and what do you pay?

Alejandro Redondo Lázaro · 14 min read · Published 29.08.2026

Going to the doctor in Switzerland usually costs between 70 and 120 CHF for a normal visit. The only part of that bill with a price set in advance is the consultation time, the minutes the doctor spends with you. That time works out at around 50-54 CHF if the visit lasts 15 minutes and at 66-71 CHF if it lasts 20, depending on the canton. Those are our own calculations based on the official 2026 tariff, because there is no official price in francs. The rest is what each visit adds on top: examinations, lab tests, materials and reports.

This article explains how the bill is put together and what share of it you pay. You will see what the most common scans, lab tests and operations cost, and when the telemedicine model saves you the whole visit. And for your own case there is a tool that tells you what each thing costs and how much of it you pay, just below.

See what your visit or your treatment costs in the tool, and what you pay→

How much does a doctor’s consultation cost in Switzerland?

It depends on how long the visit lasts and on the canton you are in. A 20-minute consultation comes to 66-71 CHF in consultation time alone, and the figure for each length is in the table below. The system has no catalogue price. It has a points tariff, the same across the whole of Switzerland, and a point value in francs that changes from canton to canton. And until your bills for the year add up to your deductible, you pay that consultation in full yourself. The next section explains how that split works.

Our calculation matches the only outside source we have found. The Swiss public broadcaster RTS did its own sum and put a 20-minute consultation at around 70 francs under the 2026 tariff, against around 60 under the previous one.

The Federal Office of Public Health publishes a much larger figure than any of these, an average of 86 CHF a month per person, covering all the doctor’s care given outside hospital. That figure also includes what each insured person paid out of their own pocket. It is an average across every insured person, including those who do not see a doctor all year. It is not what it will cost you.

What share of the bill do you pay?

Part of every bill is paid by you and part of it by the insurance. The split is decided by your deductible (Franchise, the word printed on your policy) and the co-payment.

Up to your deductible, you pay. The bills for the year add up and, as long as the running total stays below your deductible, you pay each one in full. That running total goes back to zero on 1 January.

Once you are past your deductible, the insurance pays and all you are left with is the 10% co-payment on each bill. The co-payment is capped at 700 CHF a year (350 CHF for children, who normally have no deductible). In total, with the normal co-payment, a year costs you no more than your deductible plus those 700 CHF. If you are admitted to hospital, a contribution of 15 CHF for each day of the stay is added. How to choose the deductible that suits you is in the guide on the deductible.

Back to that 20-minute consultation: say it comes to 70 CHF. With the 2,500 CHF deductible and the running total at zero, you pay all of it. With the 300 CHF one, if you have already gone past it this year, you pay 7 CHF of co-payment and the insurance puts up the rest.

Work out what you will pay, given your deductible and the size of your bill→

The deductible you choose does not only change what you pay on each bill. It also changes the premium you pay every month, and that comparison is in the deductible optimiser and in the premium calculator.

How is a doctor’s bill worked out?

The bill is a sum of tariff items. Everything the doctor does has its item, and every item has its points in the TARDOC tariff, the medical pricing system that came into force in 2026. The points are multiplied by the point value of your canton and the result is the francs. The consultation itself is two items.

That is why the usual maximum for a consultation is 20 minutes, the first 5 plus the 15 further minutes the second item allows. If the visit lasts longer, other items come in.

Not everything is billed by the minute. Part of the care, particularly in hospital, is charged at a fixed price for each procedure, as you will see in the section on operations.

Why does the same consultation cost different amounts from canton to canton?

Because the points are the same across the whole of Switzerland and the point value is negotiated canton by canton. RTS reported that in 2026 the point value ranges between 0.82 and 0.96 CHF. These are the four values we have verified one by one at their source.

Vaud and Geneva also have values for 2026, and they show something more: there is not always a single “value for the canton”.

The cantonal government of Vaud set 0.94 CHF for doctors in their own practices dealing with one purchasing group of the insurers, and 0.92 for the private clinics dealing with another group. The cantonal government of Geneva set 0.94 CHF, and only for a single insurer. All of them provisional.

Your canton not on the list? Do the same sum with the full range that RTS published (from 0.82 to 0.96) and the 20-minute consultation lands between around 63 and 74 CHF.

What if it is an emergency, a specialist or an accident?

If you are seen as an emergency at the doctor’s practice, you are billed for the normal consultation plus a fixed surcharge for the time of day. Turning up without an appointment does not count as an emergency. Under the tariff, an emergency means you have to be treated within two hours.

During the day, the surcharge is 24.87 or 41.45 points, depending on whether the case is an urgent one or an emergency. In the evening, on Saturday afternoons and on Sundays, 37.30 or 91.19 points, and an emergency adds a further 25% to the doctor’s own work in that visit. At night, 149.22 points plus 50% added to that same work.

In francs, an emergency visit (the consultation plus the surcharge) comes to around 68-114 CHF during the day and 183-237 at night, on our own calculation across the range of point values. Any tests you have add their own items to the bill. If an ambulance came, that is a separate bill, and its own guide explains it.

The consultation time you saw above costs the same with a specialist as with the family doctor. What makes the visit dearer are the items their speciality adds. And if your visit was for an accident covered by your employer’s accident insurance, the bill goes through another system with its own tariffs. What the most common tests cost is just below, and the detail of each test or operation is in the treatment cost tool.

How much does an X-ray, an ultrasound or an MRI cost in Switzerland?

An X-ray usually comes to between 23 and 90 CHF, and an MRI with its report costs between 202 and 258. The table has the most common examples, with their tariff points beside them, to give you an idea. The ranges already include what the bill usually adds: the charge for room time on an X-ray, and the radiologist’s report for an MRI, a CT scan or a mammogram. The doctor’s consultation is billed separately.

How much do lab tests and medicines cost in Switzerland?

With lab tests there are no surprises from one canton to the next. Their prices come from a federal list and are the same across the whole of Switzerland. They are usually small amounts (measuring your cholesterol costs 2.30 CHF and a blood count around 8), though taking the blood sample and the consultation are billed separately.

It works in much the same way with medicines. Every pack of a prescription medicine has an official maximum price, the same across the whole of Switzerland. A pack of Dafalgan 500 mg with 30 tablets, for instance, costs 11.60 CHF. Of that price you pay your normal 10% co-payment. Only a few medicines carry a 40% co-payment, the ones that are considerably dearer than others with the same active ingredient, and the treatment cost tool tells you which ones.

How much does day surgery cost in Switzerland?

Many operations that are done without an overnight stay in hospital have a fixed price in the 2026 tariff. As a guide, having a cataract operation on one eye comes to around 1,604-1,878 CHF, a knee arthroscopy to 2,676-4,755 and a hernia to 3,030-7,323. These are our own calculations over the range of the point value (from 0.82 to 0.96). With cataracts the range depends on the canton alone. With the arthroscopy and the hernia it also depends on the variant of the procedure, and in the end it is the clinic that decides which variant your case falls into.

See the price of each operation and what you would pay with your deductible→

Does your insurance model save you a trip to the doctor?

Sometimes it does. Everything above is what the care costs. Your insurance model decides who you turn to first when you fall ill, and that is where you can save whole visits. Your model is on your policy. In the telemedicine model, the first consultation is a phone call. If your problem is solved on that call, you save yourself the trip and the in-person visit, although that call can also be billed as a consultation. These alternative models also bring your premium down in exchange for accepting that first step. How the four models work and which one fits you is in the guide on the models.

Want to fine-tune your model and your deductible for your own case? Get in touch→

Frequently asked questions

The short version

• The consultation is billed by time: 19.20 points for the first 5 minutes and 3.84 for each further minute. Those two tariff items cover up to 20 minutes; a longer visit adds other items.
• The francs come from multiplying those points by the point value of your canton. A 20-minute consultation comes to 66-71 CHF (our own calculation; RTS published around 70).
• Of every bill you pay whatever is left of your deductible, plus the 10% co-payment on the rest. Over a whole year, with the normal co-payment, you pay no more than your deductible plus 700 CHF of co-payment. A hospital stay adds 15 CHF a day.
• With the telemedicine model, if your problem is solved over the phone you save yourself the in-person visit.
• An emergency, tests and materials push the bill up. The specialist charges the consultation time just like the family doctor, and adds the items of their speciality on top of it.

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