Guide

Which health insurance deductible to choose in Switzerland: 300 or 2,500?

Alejandro Redondo Lázaro · 10 min read · Published 22.08.2026

Swiss basic health insurance (KVG in German, LAMal in French and Italian) is compulsory for almost everyone living in Switzerland, and it gives an adult six deductibles to choose from. Only two of them are really worth considering: the 300-franc deductible and the 2,500-franc one. The rule is simple. If your medical costs for the year, the ones the basic insurance covers, stay below around 1,800 francs, you usually pay less in total with the 2,500-franc deductible. Above that figure, the 300-franc deductible costs you less. It’s a reference point rather than an exact cut-off. Further down you’ll find the whole calculation, what the official 2026 premiums show and how to work out the break-even point in your own case with a free calculator. The deductibles in between almost never pay off. And one condition comes before any rule: the 2,500-franc deductible only makes sense if you have that money set aside for an unexpected medical bill.

How does the deductible work in Switzerland?

The deductible (Franchise, the word printed on your policy) is the share of your medical costs that you take on yourself each year before the insurer starts paying. It runs on a calendar-year basis, and on 1 January the counter resets to zero. Every bill for a service the basic insurance covers counts towards it. While the running total stays below your deductible, you pay those bills yourself. Once the total goes past it, the insurer pays and all you are left with is the co-payment (Selbstbehalt in German, quote-part in French), meaning 10% of the bills that follow, capped at 700 francs a year. And that’s where the lever sits: the higher the deductible you choose, the lower your monthly premium.

If a picture helps, think of the deductible as a bathtub. Every bill fills it a little more. While it’s filling, you pay. When it overflows, the insurance starts paying. Choosing your deductible is choosing the size of your tub.

How much does each deductible lower your premium?

Insurers don’t make the discount up. The law sets a maximum per year for each deductible. These are the highest discounts the law allows an adult, measured against the 300-franc deductible:

The break-even point, with an example

The choice is a trade-off. With the 2,500-franc deductible you risk up to 2,200 francs more out of your own pocket in a year of heavy medical costs, in exchange for paying up to 1,540 francs less in premiums (the ceiling in the table above). So where is the break-even point, the level at which the two cost you the same? Take a year with 2,000 francs of medical spending:

And with the discounts insurers actually give, rather than the legal maximum? We ran that same sum with the official 2026 premiums, product by product, across 4,962 combinations of product and region. The result is remarkably consistent. The break-even point falls between 1,700 and 1,900 francs in 87% of them, and none of them goes above 2,000. The odd product breaks even much earlier, the most extreme one at 1,080 francs. That is where the 1,800-franc reference comes from. It points you in the right direction, but it isn’t your number. Yours depends on your age, your town or postcode and the particular product, and you can work it out for free in a minute:

Work out your break-even point with the deductible optimiser→

Why do the middle deductibles almost never pay off?

Because a middle deductible leaves you halfway on both counts. You pay a higher premium than with the 2,500-franc deductible, and you still put up more of your own money than with the 300-franc one. In most cases one of the two extremes comes out cheaper. If you’re unsure, the optimiser shows you all six deductibles with your own figures and you can check it for yourself.

The real risk of a high deductible is your cash flow

The risk of the 2,500-franc deductible is not in your health. It sits in your current account. An emergency gives no warning, and a single trip to the emergency department, with the tests and the hours in hospital, can eat up a good part of the deductible in one go. The 2,500-franc deductible is for someone who has those 2,500 francs (plus the co-payment) sitting in savings and can pay them while still paying the rent and the month’s bills. If that unexpected bill would push you into borrowing or into delaying other payments, choosing the 300-franc deductible is not being scared. It’s being sensible.

You choose your deductible every year, so use it to your advantage

Your deductible is not a tattoo. You choose it every year, with effect from 1 January. That turns it into a tool you can work with.

Are you expecting big costs next year, a planned operation or a long course of treatment? Above around 2,000 francs the 300-franc deductible usually works out better, so do the sum and consider lowering it for that year. Expecting a quiet year, with savings to fall back on? Then the 2,500-franc deductible leaves you with the lowest premium.

One point that surprises people is that pregnancy is no reason to lower it. The pregnancy check-ups and the birth never carry a deductible or a co-payment. And from week 13 of the pregnancy until eight weeks after the birth, neither does any other covered treatment.

Reviewing it every autumn takes five minutes, and it’s one of the few insurance decisions that comes down to pure arithmetic.

The decision, in three questions

1. Look at what you spent on doctors and medicines in each of the last two years, year by year, rather than the two added together. Just arrived, with no Swiss bills to look at? Then use how often you actually went to the doctor in your home country. That’s your real figure, not the one you imagine.
2. Did your regular costs (long-term medication, check-ups, physiotherapy) go above 1,800 francs last year, and do you expect something similar this year? Then the 300-franc deductible usually works out better.
3. Do you hardly ever see a doctor? Then the decision is about your savings rather than your health (see “The real risk of a high deductible is your cash flow”, above). With 2,500 francs put aside for an unexpected bill, take the 2,500-franc deductible; without that money, take the 300-franc one.

Some people prefer to keep their exposure to a minimum and choose the 300-franc deductible while they’re healthy, and others take on the big deductible in exchange for the lowest premium. Both are reasonable. If you spend little and you have savings behind you, the 2,500-franc deductible usually comes out cheaper. If you’d rather pay that extra premium for peace of mind, the 300-franc deductible is just as legitimate a choice. Sleeping easy has a price too.

What about children? The cap for several children

Children have no deductible by default. The insurance covers them from the first bill and all you add is the co-payment, 10% of each bill, capped at 350 francs a year (half an adult’s cap). In practice, taking a child to the paediatrician costs a good deal less than a newcomer expects.

They can be given a voluntary deductible, from 100 to 600 francs, in exchange for a discount on the premium. It rarely pays off, because the discount is small and, with children, the bills do come. The usual choice is to leave them on the 0 deductible.

And if you have several children, there is a rule worth knowing. If the siblings are all with the same insurer and on the 0 deductible, all the children together never pay more than 1,000 francs a year, the same as one adult would pay in deductible and co-payment combined.

Since each child pays 350 at most, that joint cap starts to save you money from the third child on. It comes with two catches. Split the siblings between different insurers and the cap stops applying. And with voluntary deductibles a different cap applies (it becomes twice the most a single child could pay, and where the siblings hold different deductibles the insurer sets it). One more reason to leave them on the 0 deductible.

Frequently asked questions

The short version

Either the 300-franc deductible or the 2,500-franc one, and your health alone does not decide it. Your health and your savings decide it together. Your job today is just one thing: look at what you spent last year and put your age and your postcode into the optimiser. With your own number in front of you, this takes two minutes. And when in doubt, compare before you sign. The whole system, in one place, is in the guide to health insurance in Switzerland.

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