Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH)

What is the FOPH?

The FOPH is the Federal Office of Public Health. It belongs to the Federal Department of Home Affairs (FDHA) and is based at Schwarzenburgstrasse 157 in Bern. In German it is called Bundesamt für Gesundheit (BAG), in French Office fédéral de la santé publique (OFSP) and in Italian Ufficio federale della sanità pubblica (UFSP). On Swiss forms and letters you will often see the German abbreviation BAG.

The FDHA’s organisation ordinance describes the FOPH as the specialist authority for human health, for national health policy, for Switzerland’s participation in international health policy and for social security in the areas of illness and accident (Art. 9 para. 1 OV-EDI). The office prepares acts and ordinances, supervises their implementation and informs the public.

For health insurance, the FOPH is the central federal authority. However, it is neither a health insurer nor a complaints office for individual cases. Basic health insurance is provided by private health insurers, and the FOPH supervises them. The FOPH is not responsible for authorising medicines; that is done by Swissmedic. The FOPH then decides whether, and at what price, basic health insurance pays for an authorised medicine.

Besides health insurance, the FOPH covers other areas such as communicable diseases, radiation protection, transplantation, therapeutic products, tobacco products and narcotics, as well as accident insurance and military insurance (Art. 9 para. 3 OV-EDI).

How it works: the FOPH’s role in health insurance

Supervision of health insurers: the FOPH exercises supervision under the Health Insurance Supervision Act (Art. 56 KVAG). It grants the licence to offer basic health insurance, checks each insurer’s reserves with the solvency test, can carry out inspections, including unannounced ones, and protects insured persons against abuse (Art. 34 KVAG).

Approval of premiums: each health insurer submits its premiums for the following year at least five months in advance. The FOPH checks whether they cover the costs and are not excessively high, and approves them. Before that, no insurer may publish a new premium (Art. 16 KVAG). The insurer must then notify you of the approved premium at least two months in advance (Art. 7 para. 2 of the Federal Health Insurance Act, KVG).

List of reimbursed medicines: the FOPH draws up the List of Pharmaceutical Specialties with the medicines and prices covered by basic health insurance (Art. 52 para. 1 let. b KVG). Other lists, such as the List of Analyses and the Aids and Appliances List (MiGeL), are issued by the FDHA; the FOPH publishes them.

Data and information: the FOPH publishes all approved premiums on priminfo.admin.ch and as open data. It also publishes supervisory data on the costs, reserves and administrative costs of each health insurer. In addition, the FDHA calculates the average premium per canton every year (Art. 92 of the Health Insurance Ordinance, KVV).

Legal basis

The FOPH’s tasks are set out in Art. 9 of the Organisation Ordinance for the Federal Department of Home Affairs (OV-EDI). Among its objectives, para. 2 lists guaranteeing social security against the consequences of illness and accident and ensuring that the entire population has access to comprehensive medical care at affordable cost. Para. 3 let. a no. 9 assigns health, accident and military insurance to it.

For health insurance, specific acts apply in addition. Art. 56 KVAG makes the FOPH the supervisory authority, Art. 16 KVAG governs premium approval and Art. 34 KVAG the powers of supervision. Art. 52 para. 1 let. b KVG entrusts the FOPH with the List of Pharmaceutical Specialties. Art. 33 para. 5 KVG allows the Federal Council to delegate the designation of benefits to the FDHA or the FOPH.

Example: using the official premium data

The FOPH data show how large the differences between health insurers are. Example: Tim is 40 (born in 1986) and lives in the city of Bern (premium region 1). He compares the 2026 monthly premiums of all offers for adults with accident cover. Source: FOPH, health insurance premiums 2026.

The table counts offers, not health insurers: an insurer usually offers several models, such as standard, GP and telemedicine. The premium calculator calculates the premium for your municipality and your age using the same FOPH data.

What this means for you

• Use the official figures. The FOPH’s premiums, reserves and key figures are public. You can find them on priminfo.admin.ch, in our premium calculator and in the profiles under health insurers.
• Wait for approval. New premiums for the following year only exist once the FOPH has approved them. Quotes with premiums before that date are estimates.
• Check whether a medicine is listed. If a medicine is not on the List of Pharmaceutical Specialties, or only with restrictions, basic health insurance pays only in exceptional cases. Ask your health insurer before treatment.
• Contact the right body in a dispute. For individual cases, your health insurer is responsible first, then the ombudsperson or the cantonal insurance court. The FOPH supervises the system.

You can plan a switch of health insurer with the approved premiums under Switching.

Common mistakes

• Thinking the FOPH is a health insurer. The FOPH does not insure anyone. It supervises the health insurers.
• Believing the FOPH sets the premiums. The health insurers calculate their own premiums; the FOPH approves them.
• Confusing the FOPH with Swissmedic. Swissmedic authorises medicines. The FOPH decides whether basic health insurance pays for them.
• Trying to take individual cases to the FOPH. Disputes about benefits are decided by the health insurer in a formal decision and then by the courts.

We explain how we process the FOPH data under How we calculate.