Guide

Health insurance subsidy in Switzerland: who gets it and how to apply

Alejandro Redondo Lázaro · 13 min read · Published 04.09.2026

In Switzerland, if your income is modest, your canton pays part of your compulsory health insurance. The official name is the premium reduction (Prämienverbilligung in German, réduction des primes in French, riduzione dei premi in Italian), and it is not a favour. It is written into the health insurance act itself. Most people search for it as the health insurance subsidy, and that is what we will call it here, or simply the reduction.

The catch is that in most cantons it does not arrive on its own. You have to apply, or send a form back, and every canton has its own office, its own income limits and its own deadline. Miss it, and in several cantons you lose the whole year. Here is how it works and, canton by canton, where you apply, with the official link for each one.

• Who: modest incomes; the exact limit is set by your canton, and its link in the table below tells you what it is. With children and a low or middle income the door is wider, with a minimum 80% cut in their premium.
• How much: from a few dozen francs a month up to covering almost the whole of your children’s premium, depending on the canton and your income.
• How it reaches you: as a discount straight off your insurance bill, month by month.
• The catch: in most cantons you have to apply, and in several of them every month you delay is a month lost. Your canton and its deadline are in the table below.

First see what you pay in premiums with every insurer in your municipality→

What is the premium reduction (the health insurance subsidy), and who pays it?

Your canton pays it, with cantonal and federal money. And there is one detail that throws almost everybody. The money does not reach you. The canton pays it straight to your insurer, and you see it as a discount on your monthly bill. Your insurer itself has to tell you the amount of the reduction by the next bill at the latest.

If a comparison helps, it is not like being paid a grant; it is more like being put on a reduced rate. Nothing lands in your bank account. The bill simply comes in lower.

Source: Art. 65 LAMal — the cantons grant the reduction to insured people “de condition économique modeste” and pay it directly to the insurers (para. 1); the insurer tells the beneficiary the amount by the next bill at the latest (para. 4bis) — accessed 03.09.2026

Do you qualify for the subsidy?

It depends on your income, on your assets and on your canton. Federal law does not set a single figure for the whole of Switzerland. It says the reduction is for people living in “modest economic circumstances” and leaves the thresholds to each canton. That is why the same family can get the subsidy in one canton and not get it in the one next door.

Federal law does set one minimum for the whole country. For low and middle incomes, the cantons have to cut children’s premiums by at least 80% and the premiums of young adults aged 18 to 25 in education by at least 50%. If you have children and money is tight, this is the widest door of all.

To give you a sense of where the thresholds sit, every canton publishes its own. In Zurich, for example, the children’s reduction has its own income ceiling in 2026. A family with children under 18 can get it up to 70,500 francs of determining income, and up to 94,000 if there is a young adult in education at home, provided it meets the canton’s other conditions. The general limits are separate and change with the region, your marital status and the number of children. Careful, though, because the “determining income” is not your gross salary, and it is not simply your taxable income either. Each canton works it out with its own additions and deductions (assets included). Your canton’s link in the table below tells you yours.

Source: Art. 65 para. 1bis LAMal — minimum reduction of 80% (children) and 50% (young adults in education) for low and middle incomes; paras. 1ter to 1quinquies and the transitional provision of the amendment of 29.09.2023 — minimum cantonal spending from 2026 (3.5% of gross costs for the first two years) and a four-year deadline to set the maximum percentage of disposable income (if a canton does not set it, the Federal Council does) — accessed 03.09.2026

How do you apply, canton by canton?

This is the heart of it, and the reason this guide exists. There is no Swiss procedure. There are 26. In most cantons you have to file an application or send a form back, even if the canton wrote to you first. In others the reduction is granted automatically from your tax data, and even there some groups almost always have to apply for it. And the deadlines run from “every month you delay is a month you lose” to cut-off dates that, once past, take the whole year with them.

One quirk of the calendar is working in your favour. In the cantons where the 2026 deadline has already passed, the 2027 round is opening right now (in Aargau it opens in September; in Lucerne it runs to 31 October). If you are late for this year, you are right on time for next. And two deadlines that do still count this autumn: in Zug the late window for 2026 closes on 30 September, and in Geneva anyone who has to apply has until 30 November.

If your canton wants an application and you do not know where to start, the short way in is to write or call the office that runs the subsidy in your canton (you will find it by clicking its name in the table) and say, literally: “I have just found out that the premium reduction exists and I think I may be entitled to it. Could you tell me which form applies to me and what documents you need?” That puts you on the right track, and most of them have the form online.

How much do you get, and when does the money arrive?

How much? There is no national rate. Every canton has its own formula or its own bands. The usual mechanism is a reference premium minus what the canton reckons you can pay out of your own income, and the difference is your reduction. In Zurich, for example, the 2026 reference premium is 70% of the average premium for your region (until 2025 it was 60%, another of the increases that came with the law that entered into force on 1 January 2026). The result runs from a few dozen francs a month up to covering almost the whole of your children’s premium.

When? From the month stated in your decision letter (the ruling your canton sends you), as a discount on the bill. And here comes the warning in this guide that will save you the most money. In several cantons the entitlement is not backdated. In Basel-Stadt it starts the month after you apply; in Vaud, as a rule, the second month; in Ticino, the month after you file the application. In those cantons, every month you leave it for later is a month of discount lost. What does that mean in practice? Apply this week, not “when I get a minute”.

What if your income changes? The small print of the subsidy

Just so you know, and so it does not catch you out. The reduction is worked out from your figures for one tax year, and life carries on. If your income improves, in many cantons you have a duty to report it, and if you have been paid too much, they can claim it back. It happens to people every year, with no bad faith involved. A promotion, more hours, and nobody remembers the letter about the subsidy.

Here are the real nuances, so you can see the range: Zurich requires you to report any improvement in income of 10,000 francs or more. Vaud puts it bluntly. There, any change in your income, your assets or the make-up of your household has to be reported without delay, your entitlement is reviewed, and anything you were overpaid goes back. Geneva (in the automatic scheme) and St. Gallen, on the other hand, work with a tax lag of around two years. Today’s improvement does not touch this year’s reduction; it shows up in the reduction two years from now. So which rule is yours? The one in your decision letter. Read it and keep it.

And the small print works in your favour too. If your income falls or your situation changes (you lose your job, a child is born, you separate), federal law requires the cantons to take account of your most recent circumstances, and to do so in particular when you ask them to. In plain English, do not wait for your next tax return. Write to the office in your canton and ask for the recalculation.

Source: Art. 65 para. 3 LAMal — when the entitlement is examined, the most recent economic and family circumstances are taken into account, “notamment à la demande de l’assuré” — accessed 03.09.2026

Does this subsidy count as social assistance?

This is the fear that most often stops the people who need it most, so we are going to set the record straight. The premium reduction sits in the health insurance act (art. 65 LAMal/KVG), not in the social assistance laws. They are different legal instruments, with different rules. Drawing social assistance can indeed weigh on decisions about residence permits; the premium reduction is a different thing. In fact, the law requires the cantons to inform insured people regularly of their right to claim it.

No absolutes, though. If your permit situation is delicate, the serious answer is not in an article; it is at the migration office of your canton. Ask there BEFORE you give up, out of fear, a right that the law itself gives you.

The short version

• Your canton can pay part of your basic insurance if your income is modest. It is called the premium reduction, and it is a right under the health insurance act, not social assistance.
• The money does not reach you. It comes straight off your insurance bill.
• The federal minimums are an 80% reduction on children’s premiums and 50% on those of young adults in education, for low and middle incomes.
• In most cantons you have to do something (an application or a form); in several of them, every month you delay is a month of discount lost. Find your canton in the table, and its deadline as of today.
• If your income goes up, look at your decision letter. In many cantons you have to report it and they can claim back anything you were overpaid. If it goes down, ask for the recalculation yourself: the law is on your side.

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