Premium

What is the premium?

The premium is the price of your health insurance. You pay it to your health insurer whether or not you use any benefits in a given month. In everyday language, “premium” usually means the premium for basic health insurance under the Health Insurance Act (KVG/LAMal). If you have supplementary insurance, you pay a separate premium for it, which is set according to different rules.

The premium is only one part of your healthcare costs. On top of it comes the co-payment when you use benefits: the deductible and the retention fee. Premium and co-payment are linked. A high deductible lowers the premium but increases the risk of paying more yourself if you fall ill.

Basic health insurance uses a uniform premium: an insurer charges all its insured persons the same premium unless the law provides for an exception (Art. 61 para. 1 KVG). State of health, sex, income and age on joining play no role. This distinguishes basic health insurance from supplementary insurance under the Insurance Contract Act (ICA), where age, sex and health information may affect the premium.

What the premium depends on

Only these distinctions are allowed:

• Insurer: Each insurer sets its own premiums, based on its costs and reserves.
• Canton and region: Premiums are graded according to cantonal costs. Eleven cantons also have two or three premium regions. What counts is where you live.
• Age group: Children pay less than young adults, and young adults less than adults. The group is determined by your year of birth.
• Deductible: The higher the deductible you choose, the lower the premium.
• Insurance model: GP, HMO, telemedicine or pharmacy models are cheaper than the standard model with free choice of physicians.
• Accident cover: If you are fully insured against accidents through your employer under the Accident Insurance Act (UVG), you can exclude accident cover. The premium falls accordingly.

How it works

The premium is set each year in a fixed procedure. In spring and summer, insurers calculate their expected costs for the following year and submit their premiums to the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH). The FOPH checks whether the premiums cover the costs, are not unreasonably high and do not lead to excessive reserves. Only after approval may an insurer publish and apply the premiums (Art. 16 KVAG). Beforehand, the cantons can comment on the estimated costs in their canton.

At the end of September, the FOPH announces the approved premiums and publishes them on priminfo.admin.ch and as open data. Insurers must notify their policyholders of the new premium at least two months before it applies, i.e. by 31 October, and point out the right to switch (Art. 7 para. 2 KVG). The new premium applies from 1 January for the whole calendar year.

The premium is payable in advance and usually monthly (Art. 90 KVV). Many insurers also let you pay every six months or annually; whether there is a discount for this is up to the insurer. If you do not pay, the insurer sends you a reminder and can start debt enforcement proceedings. As long as premiums for which you have received a reminder remain unpaid, you cannot switch insurer.

Mean premium 2026

Every year the FOPH publishes the mean premium. It is an average across all insurers, deductibles and models. In 2026 it is CHF 393.30 a month, CHF 16.60 or 4.4% more than in 2025.

Source: FOPH, mean monthly cantonal premiums 2025/2026, published on 23.09.2025. The mean premium says little about your personal premium. It includes many insured persons with a high deductible and low-cost models. The example below shows how far your premium can differ from it.

Legal basis

The principles governing the premium are set out in Art. 61 of the Federal Health Insurance Act (KVG). Under Art. 61 para. 1 KVG, the insurer sets the premiums and charges its insured persons the same premiums unless the law provides for an exception. Para. 2 requires grading according to cantonal cost differences, with the place of residence being decisive. Para. 2bis allows regional grading; the regions and the maximum permitted differences are set by the Federal Department of Home Affairs (FDHA). Under para. 3, the premium for children and young adults must be lower than for other insured persons, and that for children lower than that for young adults.

The FDHA Ordinance on Premium Regions assigns every municipality to a region. Fifteen cantons have only one region, including Aargau, Basel-Stadt, Geneva and Zug. Zurich, Bern, Lucerne, St. Gallen and Graubünden have three regions. In Zurich, the premium for standard insurance with accident cover may differ by at most 15% between regions 1 and 2 and by at most 10% between regions 2 and 3 (Annex 2).

Art. 62 KVG allows discounts for special types of insurance: for models with a restricted choice of physicians, for optional deductibles and for bonus insurance. However, the premium for a special type of insurance must be at least 50% of the premium for standard insurance with accident cover in the same region and age group (Art. 90c KVV). Approval of premiums by the FOPH is governed by Art. 16 of the Health Insurance Supervision Act (KVAG), and exclusion of accident cover by Art. 8 KVG.

Example: same year of birth, three municipalities in the canton of Zurich

Lena is 34 and is thinking of moving from the city of Zurich to Winterthur or to Bauma in the Töss valley. The three municipalities (Gemeinden) lie in the three Zurich premium regions. The table shows the monthly premiums for her year of birth with a CHF 300 deductible and accident cover, across all insurers and models in each municipality.

Municipality	Region	Cheapest offer	Median	Most expensive offer
Zurich	1	CHF 517.70	CHF 580.00	CHF 724.00
Winterthur	2	CHF 467.90	CHF 528.05	CHF 637.70
Bauma	3	CHF 427.80	CHF 497.20	CHF 617.80

Source: FOPH, health insurance premiums 2026 (opendata.swiss), municipalities of Zurich, Winterthur and Bauma, adults, with accident cover.

The premium calculator shows which offers apply in your municipality, using official FOPH data. Key figures on individual insurers, such as reserves and administrative costs, are in the health insurers overview.

What this means for you

Your premium is not set in stone. You control four levers yourself:

1. Insurer: Compare every year after the premiums are published at the end of September. Switching does not cost you any benefits.
2. Model: If you are willing to contact a particular practice, a health centre or a telephone advice service first, the premium falls. You can join such a model at any time.
3. Deductible: A higher deductible lowers the premium but only pays off if your expected costs are low. Calculate with the premium plus the possible co-payment.
4. Accident cover: If you work at least eight hours a week for the same employer, you are usually also insured against non-work-related accidents under the UVG. You can then exclude accident cover from your basic health insurance. Check with your employer before you exclude it.

If the premium puts a heavy strain on your budget, look into your canton’s premium subsidy. The rules and deadlines differ from canton to canton.

Keep the dates in mind: your notice of cancellation for basic health insurance must reach your insurer by 30 November; in 2026 that is a Monday. All steps are in the switching centre, and the dates under deadlines.

Common mistakes

• Taking the mean premium as your own. The Swiss-wide average says little about your premium in your municipality, with your deductible and your model.
• Comparing only the premium. A low premium with a CHF 2,500 deductible can end up more expensive in a year with high costs than a higher premium with a CHF 300 deductible.
• Forgetting accident cover. If you are no longer insured against accidents through your employer, for example after leaving your job or on retirement, you must have accident cover added back.
• Confusing premiums and co-payments. You always pay the premium; you pay the co-payment only when you use benefits. Premium subsidies apply only to the premium.
• Taking 2027 premiums from forecasts. Only the premium approved by the FOPH and notified to you in writing by your insurer is binding.