Guide

How to switch health insurance in Switzerland

Alejandro Redondo Lázaro · 13 min read · Published 26.08.2026

You can switch your compulsory health insurance in Switzerland every year, with effect from 1 January. The letter that matters is the cancellation, because it has to reach your current insurer by 30 November at the latest. Your application to the new insurer is not tied to that deadline and you can send it later, though the sensible thing is to send both letters at the same time. There is nothing to be nervous about. Any insurer that operates in your area is obliged to accept you, whatever your age and your state of health, and the benefits are the same at every insurer because the law sets them. The only thing that really changes is what you pay each month.

Before you decide, compare. The premium calculator shows you in a minute what you would pay at each insurer with your age, your postcode, your deductible and your model.

What is the deadline to switch health insurer?

The deadline is 30 November, and it is a date of arrival, not of posting. By that day the cancellation letter already has to be with your insurer, so the postmark does not count.

The calendar starts earlier. At the end of September, the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH, the BAG in German and the OFSP in French) publishes the approved premiums for the following year, meaning what you will pay each month. By the end of October at the latest, your insurer writes to you with your new premium and reminds you of your right to switch. From there, you decide. In the guide to the premiums you can leave your email and get the alert the day they come out.

The 30 November date is not written into the law. It comes out of the one month’s notice that runs from the moment your new premium is communicated to you. That is why the same date comes round every year.

And what if you are already in the last days of November? Do not rely on the post. Deliver the letter in person at one of your insurer’s offices before it closes and ask for proof of receipt. If you have no office nearby, call and ask which channel it will accept in time. Dropping it in a postbox on the 30th is not enough. The deadline is met when the letter is in the insurer’s possession, during office hours.

How do you switch insurer, step by step?

1. Compare and choose your insurer. Do it in the calculator from the end of September onwards, once the premiums have been approved. Do not sign any offer made before that approval, because the FOPH warns that unapproved premiums circulate.
2. Apply to the new insurer and send the cancellation at the same time. In the basic insurance you do not wait to be accepted. Use the Confederation’s official model letters, free and in German, French and Italian, linked in the sources. There is no official model letter in English. In the cancellation, write that you are terminating the basic insurance with effect from 31 December 2026. In the application, state the deductible and the model you want from 1 January. You need one application for each person who is switching, and a child’s application is signed by a parent. In the subject line, write Kündigung, résiliation or disdetta. And send them in mid-November, by registered post or by A Mail Plus.
3. Keep paying your old insurer until it confirms the date your cover with it ends. Your cancellation does not take effect until the new insurer tells the old one that it covers you without interruption. That date is normally 31 December, though if the new insurer confirms late it will be later. Until then, the old insurer’s bills are yours. And a debt that has been demanded and not paid can stop the whole switch going through.

Can the new insurer turn you down?

No. Every insurer that operates in your area is obliged to accept you without reservations, meaning without writing an exclusion for something you already have, and without waiting periods, whatever your age and your state of health. The health insurance supervision act sets it out and the FOPH repeats it. The health questionnaire exists in supplementary insurance, not here.

You can switch mid-treatment, while pregnant or with a chronic illness. The benefits of the basic insurance are the same at every insurer, because the law sets them. If you have a cost approval from your current insurer (Kostengutsprache in German, or guarantee of payment), mention it when you apply and ask the new insurer to confirm it.

Can you change your deductible or your model too?

Yes. When you apply you choose deductible and model from scratch, and those are the other two levers on what you pay. You can also move just one of them without changing insurer, by giving notice to your own.

• The deductible is the size of your bathtub, meaning what you pay yourself each year before the insurance starts paying. It changes with effect from 1 January. To lower it, your notice has to arrive by 30 November at the latest. To raise it, give notice in writing by mid-December at the latest, as the FOPH recommends. To work out which one pays off for you, see the deductible guide and the optimizer.
• The model, meaning your first point of contact when you fall ill, has different deadlines depending on which way you move it. You can join a cheaper one (family doctor, an HMO health centre or telemedicine) at any time, always with the same insurer. If you are on bonus insurance, you can only join at the end of the year. To go back to the standard model (free choice of doctor), or to jump from one model to another, the change is for 1 January and your notice has to arrive by 30 November. The guide to the models explains them one by one.

Can you switch in the middle of the year?

Yes, in a few cases. The first is the 30 June window, open only if you have the standard deductible (300 CHF for adults, none for children) and free choice of doctor. Your letter has to arrive by 31 March at the latest, moving earlier in the same way if that date falls on a weekend. A high deductible, an alternative model or bonus insurance all close that window.

The second is the forced switch. If you move house and your insurer does not operate where you are going to live, your insurance with it ends on the day of the move. If you change employer and that obliges you to change insurer, your insurance ends on the day you start the new job. It is an emergency exit, not a free window.

The third case is a rare one. If your insurer announces a new premium that starts in the middle of the year, you can leave with effect from the end of the previous month, giving one month’s notice. Both of those doors, the house move and the mid-year premium, stay open even if you have a high deductible or an alternative model.

Switching in the middle of the year does not make you pay the deductible twice, because the new insurer has to credit you the deductible and the 10% co-payment already billed to you that year.

Can you switch if you owe unpaid premiums?

It depends on whether they have been demanded. You cannot switch if two things happen at once. The first, that premiums, cost sharing (your deductible and your co-payment), interest or debt collection charges have been demanded of you up to 30 November. The second, that on 31 December they are still not paid in full. A bill that has not been demanded does not block you. If the debts are only your children’s, you can switch, though the child who owes them cannot switch until they are paid.

Pay the whole amount and make sure the money arrives before the year is out. Ordering the transfer on 30 December is not enough. Your insurer has to warn you that the switch will lapse if you do not pay in time. If the money does not arrive, you stay where you are until the next window to switch. Just so you know, and so it does not hit you out of the blue in January.

What happens to your supplementary insurance?

Your supplementary insurance (VVG in German, LCA in French and Italian) is not cancelled when you switch the basic insurance. It is a separate contract and you can leave it where it is, even if your basic insurance goes to another insurer. Your old insurer cannot force you to cancel it, nor cancel it on you, solely because you are taking the basic insurance elsewhere. What you can lose is the discount for combining the two at the same insurer. Check that first.

If you want to move that too, the order is reversed. There they can turn you down, so do not cancel the one you have until the new insurer accepts you in writing. The supplementary deadlines are different, and many of them fall due as early as September. On top of that, your contract may have a minimum term. The details are in the guide to cancelling supplementary insurance. And the tool writes the letter for you.

How do you know the switch has gone through?

Two documents will arrive. One is the policy from the new insurer, which confirms that you have joined, and the other a letter from the old one with the date from which it stops insuring you. That letter is the only one the law requires. When you have both, the switch is confirmed.

If the new insurer confirms late, you stay insured with the old one, with no gap in cover. And the bills the old insurer sends you in those months are legitimate. Pay them. If the old insurer is the more expensive one, the new one has to refund you the difference in premium. Keep the receipts and claim the difference in writing.

The direct debit to the old insurer does not cancel itself, but do not rush to cancel it either. The deductible and the co-payment of the old year can be billed months later, so cancel it once the old insurer has taken the last payment, not when its letter arrives.

Can you cancel the basic insurance without taking out another one?

Not while you live in Switzerland. The only general way out is leaving the country. The law reserves exceptions for very specific categories, so if you think you are in one, ask. If you really are leaving, do three things. Deregister at your municipality (Gemeinde in German, commune in French) and give them your date of departure. Give that date to your insurer with proof of postage, and ask what supporting document it needs. And pay up to that date, without cancelling the direct debit until you have the end of your cover in writing. With a residence permit, the insurance ends on the date you announced, and at the latest on the day you leave.

A temporary departure is a different matter. If you go away for a few months without moving your residence, you are still required to be insured in Switzerland, even if you have deregistered at your municipality. What counts is your actual residence, not the paperwork. Some groups, such as pensioners and cross-border workers, stay insured in Switzerland even when they move to the EU/EFTA or the United Kingdom.

Frequently asked questions

The short version

At the end of September you compare with the new premiums. You apply to the new insurer and send the cancellation to the old one at the same time, both in mid-November. No insurer in your area can turn you down in the basic insurance. Your supplementary insurance can stay where it is. And the law leaves no gap in cover. When in doubt, compare before you sign.

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