Terminating Your Swiss Health Insurance Policy: Key Points

Legally speaking, the coverage you get with your obligatory health insurance policy in Switzerland is always identical, regardless of which insurance company you choose. Premiums, on the other hand, vary widely. That’s why it is important to compare health insurance policies regularly.

Once you have made up your mind to switch to another insurance provider, you will have to cancel your current insurance policy. Terminating your policy can be done easily at no financial cost. Here are some key points which you may find useful.

• Unlike supplementary insurance coverage, you can cancel your obligatory health insurance policy before the end of November each year. This applies regardless of your individual circumstances, your deductible or your current insurance model.
   
• Termination period: The insurance company must receive your notice of cancellation by the cut-off date. The date at which you send the notice is irrelevant. The insurer must receive your policy cancellation notice before the last business day in November. Insurance companies may take up to 7 days to check their mailboxes.
   
• Important: If possible, don’t send your policy termination notice during the last week of November.

• If you want to terminate your policy shortly ahead of the November deadline, you may want to visit your insurer’s local branch office to cancel your contract in person, or call the insurance company and send your termination form via fax.

• When you sign up for a new policy, many insurers will provide you with a prefilled policy cancellation form which you can then send to your current insurer. Some insurance companies will even send the notice of termination to your current insurer on your behalf, to facilitate your move to their policy.

• Health insurers are required to provide you with the premiums for the coming calendar year two months before premium changes take effect on January 1. So you should be informed of projected premiums for the coming year by the end of October.

• Good to know: You can switch your obligatory health insurance policy to another insurer while keeping the supplementary insurance coverage provided by your current insurer. That way you can continue to benefit from your preferred supplementary coverage while saving on obligatory insurance premiums. In the worst case, you would lose any multi-policy discounts.

• If your policy uses the standard model (not the HMO, family doctor or telmed options), you can take advantage of a second termination window at the end of June. In this case, you need to make sure that the insurance company receives your termination notice by the last business day of March.

• Aside from the preset termination periods, you can only terminate your health insurance policy in the unusual event that premiums are raised during the year. If that happens, you will have a one-month period within which you can cancel your policy.

• Special rules apply to insurance policies which use a rewards model and incident-free discount. In this case, cancelling your policy may only be possible after a predetermined number of years.

• Changes to your deductible will only take effect from January 1, even if you change your deductible without changing insurers. Accident insurance, on the other hand, can be added to or removed from your policy throughout the year.

• If your policy is based on one of the three discount models (family doctor, HMO or telmed) and you want to switch to a different discount model, many insurers will allow you to make the change throughout the year. The change will take effect as per the beginning of the coming month. However, you will not have the option of switching to a standard model insurance policy. Note that this doesn’t apply to all insurance companies, and individual insurers have their own sets of terms and regulations in this regard.

More information:
Swiss health insurance comparison