Guide

How health insurance works in Switzerland

Alejandro Redondo Lázaro · 13 min read · Published 16.08.2026 · updated 17.08.2026

In Switzerland health insurance is compulsory, and you’re free to choose between the approved insurers. You’ll hear it called mandatory or compulsory health insurance, or basic insurance: it’s the same policy. You have 3 months from the day you take up residence in Switzerland to take one out. Federal law sets what it covers, so every insurer covers exactly the same things. You’ll see that law written as KVG in the German-speaking part and as LAMal in the French and Italian parts. You pay a premium every month; when you use the insurance you also pay a deductible and, once your deductible is used up, a co-payment. All of that is explained further down. This guide gives you an overview of the whole system.

Who needs health insurance in Switzerland?

Everyone who lives in Switzerland has to be insured, with a few exceptions. Some apply automatically and others have to be applied for; they depend on your nationality, your country of residence and your particular situation. The main exceptions:

• Students: it depends on the country and on the cover they already hold. Students from the EU, EFTA or the United Kingdom who don’t work in Switzerland and stay insured under their home public system can fall outside the Swiss obligation. Anyone who wants the exemption because they hold equivalent private cover has to apply to their canton for it; it isn’t automatic.
• Cross-border workers from neighbouring countries who work in Switzerland: they may have the right to choose their home country insurance (conditions apply; it isn’t automatic).
• People who work and pay their social contributions in another country: international agreements can put them outside the Swiss obligation automatically.
• People who are in Switzerland only to receive medical treatment or a cure: they can’t join the compulsory insurance for that stay.

When does your cover start (and when do you start paying)?

The first thing you do when you arrive in Switzerland, if you plan to stay longer than three months, is register your arrival with your local municipality (Gemeinde in German, commune in French). You have 14 days from your arrival to do it. Registering puts your arrival date on record. And it’s from that arrival date that the three months you have to take out the insurance start to run (for a newborn, they run from the date of birth).

Pay attention here, because this is the rule that confuses people most: your cover and your payments don’t start on the day you sign the insurance contract. They start on that arrival date: the day you entered Switzerland to stay. When you register, you’re given a document confirming that date. It’s called the Anmeldebestätigung in German; in French and Italian its name changes from canton to canton. Keep it somewhere safe.

The practical consequence: whichever day within the deadline you take out the insurance, you pay from that start date. Sign up in your first week and you pay month by month from the beginning. Leave it to the end of the three months and the first bill lands with all of those months at once. If that happens to you, ask your insurer whether you can pay it in instalments.

What do you pay to have the insurance, and what do you pay to use it?

In Switzerland you pay to have the insurance (the premium, every month) and you pay part of the bill when you use it (the deductible and the co-payment). Three words explain the whole thing:

• The monthly premium: what you pay every month to be insured, whether you see a doctor or not.
• The deductible (franchise in French, Franchise in German): the first slice of the bills that you pay yourself each year when you use the insurance.
• The co-payment (quote-part in French, Selbstbehalt in German): the 10% of every bill that you carry on paying once your deductible is used up, capped at 700 francs a year (350 for children).

The deductible works like this: when you take out the insurance you choose a figure. Up to that figure, you pay the year’s medical bills yourself. From there on, the insurer starts paying. An example: with a deductible of 300 francs, the first 300 francs of bills in the year come out of your own pocket; after that the insurer pays. You choose the size, but not just any figure will do: for an adult there are six fixed steps (300, the ordinary one, or 500, 1,000, 1,500, 2,000 and 2,500 francs), and not every insurer offers all of them. Children have a deductible of 0 by default: they can be given one of up to 600 francs in exchange for a lower premium.

To picture it easily, think of a bathtub. Your deductible is the size of the tub. It starts empty on 1 January and, as a general rule, every bill for something the compulsory insurance covers fills it a little more. While it’s filling, you pay. Once it’s full, the insurer starts paying. Anything the insurance doesn’t cover you pay separately, and it doesn’t fill the tub. (The law leaves a few services outside the deductible: maternity, which carries no co-payment either, and since 2026 the recommended vaccinations that the insurance covers, which do still carry their 10% co-payment.)

The co-payment has its own exceptions. Some medicines carry a higher co-payment when the official list has an equivalent that’s considerably cheaper; the detail, with its caveats, is in the guide on the deductible. And if you’re admitted to hospital, on top of the cap there’s a contribution of 15 francs a day. It’s not paid by children and young people up to and including 18, by young adults up to 25 who are still studying, or by women for maternity services.

Why do the two of them matter so much? Because the monthly premium and the deductible pull in opposite directions: a big tub, you pay less each month; a small tub, you pay more. Almost every decision in this guide comes out of that balance, starting with which deductible to choose, 300 or 2,500.

What does Swiss basic health insurance cover?

The essentials: the doctor, specialists, hospital treatment in the general ward, prescription medicines that are on the official list, emergencies, pregnancy and birth. Maternity brings an advantage that few people know about: the pregnancy check-ups and the birth never carry a deductible or a co-payment; and from week 13 of the pregnancy until 8 weeks after the birth, neither does any other treatment. What it covers is set by law, which is why it’s identical wherever you take it out.

What surprises people is what it does NOT cover: the dentist (except in very specific cases), glasses and contact lenses for adults (as a general rule) and a private room in hospital. That’s what supplementary insurance is for, meaning extra policies that you take out separately and only if you want them. And they play by different rules: in the compulsory insurance no insurer can turn you down; a supplementary policy can ask about your health and say no.

Do all insurers cover the same things?

In the compulsory insurance, yes: they cover exactly the same things, they’re obliged to accept you and there’s no health questionnaire. So what does change from one insurer to another (you’ll also hear them called caisses maladie in French, Krankenkassen in German)? Two things. The price: the same cover can cost very different amounts depending on the insurer, your age group (children, young adults from 19 to 25, and adults from 26) and the municipality you live in. And the service: the app, how fast they refund you, the language they deal with you in. The practical consequence: once your deductible, your model and your accident cover are settled, comparing insurers is what’s left to bring the bill down. That’s why doing it every year is worth the trouble.

Which insurance models exist, and which one suits you?

On top of the deductible you also choose the model, meaning who you turn to first when you fall ill. With the standard model you go straight to any doctor allowed to bill the compulsory insurance. With the other models you agree to go through the same door first: your family doctor, a specific medical centre (that’s the HMO model) or a consultation by phone or app (that’s telemedicine); they tell you whether you need a specialist. In an emergency the model restriction does not apply, but each model sets its own conditions for what you have to do afterwards: read them. In exchange you pay less each month. The cover is the same; what changes is the way you come in. The guide on models compares them one by one.

With or without accident cover?

Worth knowing, because hardly anyone tells you: if you’re an employee, your employer insures you by law against accidents at work, and if you also work 8 hours or more a week for the same employer, against accidents outside work as well. In that case you can ask your insurer to suspend the accident cover in your compulsory insurance, by showing that your job covers you in full, and save that part of the premium. Not working, or not reaching 8 hours a week? Then keep the accident cover in your policy: that’s what covers you for accidents outside work. When to drop it, when never to touch it, and the dangerous moment when you leave a job: the guide on accident cover tells the whole story.

How much does health insurance cost in Switzerland?

There is no single price. The premium for the compulsory insurance depends on your age group, your municipality, the insurer and three decisions of your own: the deductible, the model and whether or not you carry the accident cover. National averages are of little use for that reason: the figure that matters is yours. The calculator uses the official premiums for your municipality and gives you that figure in a minute, without signing up.

Work out your premium now→

Is there help with paying for the insurance? The premium reduction

If money is tight, you don’t have to carry it on your own: when your income is modest, your canton pays part of the monthly premium. Every canton has its own rules: in some cantons the reduction arrives automatically and in others you have to claim it with a form. Before you treat the calculator’s figure as final, look at how the reduction works in your canton.

How can you pay less for health insurance?

• The deductible. A high deductible lowers the premium, but it raises what you can end up paying out of your own pocket. Compare the total cost at different deductible levels against the medical spending you expect.
• The model. Telemedicine or a family doctor bring the bill down without cutting any cover.
• The insurer. You can change insurer every year: the same product, very different prices. The change goes by letter: you write to your current insurer to say you’re leaving, and that letter has to REACH them by 30 November at the latest. What counts is the day the letter arrives at the insurer, not the day you post it. And if 30 November falls on a Saturday or a Sunday, the letter has to arrive on the Friday before. The change takes effect on 1 January. Careful: if on 31 December you still owe premiums, co-payments, interest or costs that were claimed from you before 30 November, they won’t let you leave; pay everything before the end of the year and the change goes ahead. (With the 300-franc deductible and free choice of doctor there’s also a change on 1 July, with the letter received before the end of March.)

Frequently asked questions

A quick recap, and you have it: you choose the insurer, the deductible and the model; the cover is the same at all of them. Your job today is just one thing: put your postcode and your age into the calculator and look at your real number, not the national average. When in doubt, ask before you sign. And do get in touch if you need a hand.

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