A new analysis from moneyland.ch reveals how much you would have to pay for the cheapest available mandatory health insurance in different Swiss municipalities. The premiums analyzed are for mandatory health insurance without accident coverage for both young adults (residents between 19 and 25 years old) and adults (age 26 and older), for both the lowest and highest insurance deductible. The overview of results shows the effective costs of mandatory health insurance more precisely than the average premiums communicated by the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH).
Verdict: The cost of the cheapest available health insurance varies massively depending on where you live. In the canton of Appenzell Innerrhoden, the cheapest health insurance with the lowest deductible of 300 francs costs 289.20 francs per month, compared to 466.50 francs in Basel Stadt. “Even if both used the cheapest available insurance provider and the cheapest managed care offer available in their area, an adult with a 300-franc insurance deductible in the canton of Appenzell Innerrhoden would pay 2100 francs less per year than an adult in Basel Stadt,” says moneyland.ch analyst Felix Oeschger.
These same two cantons also take the top and bottom places for the 2500-franc deductible. The cheapest monthly premium for people aged 26 and older with a 2500-franc deductible is 178.50 in Appenzell Innerrhoden, and 347.20 francs in Basel Stadt.
Different premiums within the same canton
The Swiss mandatory health insurance system divides the country into 42 different premium regions. Insurance premiums can be much higher in one municipality than in another, depending on which premium regions they are in.
Many Swiss cantons have just one premium region. That is the case with Appenzell Innerrhoden and Basel Stadt, for example. But other cantons are broken up into two or even three different premium regions. Because it can be difficult to find out which premium region you live in, moneyland.ch created an interactive map which shows the cheapest available mandatory health insurance offer for each municipality:
Lowest premiums for young adults
Insurance premiums for young adults between the ages of 19 and 25 also vary broadly between places of residence. The cheapest available mandatory health insurance for young adults with a 300-franc deductible costs 212.50 francs per month in Appenzell Innerrhoden – less than anywhere else in Switzerland. The cheapest equivalent offer in the canton of Geneva costs 354.40 francs, which is more than in any other place in Switzerland.
The pattern is similar for young-adult insurance offers with a 2500-franc deductible. The cheapest health insurance offers for this profile range between 125.10 francs (Appenzell Innerrhoden) and 235.10 francs (Geneva) per month.
KPT is the cheapest for adults in more cantons than other insurers
For each of the 42 premium regions, moneyland.ch determined the cheapest health insurance offer and the corresponding insurance provider. For adult residents (age 26 and older) with a 300-franc deductible, KPT has the cheapest health insurance offer in 8 out of 42 regions. It is followed by Assura (6 regions), Provita (5 regions), Aquilana and Krankenkasse Luzerner Hinterland (4 regions each), Sympany Vivao (3 regions), and Swica (2 premium regions).
For adult residents with the highest deductible (2500 francs), KPT has the cheapest offers in 13 of the 42 premium regions, followed by Klug (5 regions), Aquilana (4 regions), Assura (3 regions), Atupri, Provita, Swica, and Sympany Vivao (2 regions each).
It is important to understand that not all insurance companies operate across all regions. For example, the Krankenkasse Luzerner Hinterland only offers mandatory health insurance in 16 premiums regions. In around a quarter (25 percent) of those regions, Krankenkasse Luzerner Hinterland has the cheapest offer available for adults with a 300-franc deductible. Assura, on the other hand, operates across all 42 premium regions, but only has the cheapest premiums for adult residents in 6 of them (14 percent).
The cheapest health insurance for young adults
For many young adults between the ages of 19 and 25 years old, the profile with the highest health insurance deductible (2500 francs) is the most relevant. Sanitas and EGK top the charts in this regard, with Sanitas offering the cheapest insurance in 15 premium regions, and EGK in 12. These are followed by Assura, which has the cheapest offers for this profile in 6 premium regions, ÖKK (cheapest in 3 regions), and Atupri (cheapest in 2 regions).
For young adults with a 300-franc deductible, Assura offers the cheapest health insurance in 11 regions, ÖKK in 10 regions, Atupri and Aquilana in 4 each, the Krankenkasse Luzerner Hinterland in 3, and EGK in 2 premium regions.
Here too, not all insurance companies operate in all premium regions. So a relatively affordable insurance provider may not be among the cheapest on a national level because of it is limited to a small region.
Even neighboring towns can have huge premium differences
Even neighbors who both use the exact same insurance could pay very different insurance premiums. That can be the case when bordering municipalities fall into two different premium regions.
Example: The cheapest available mandatory health insurance for adult residents with a 2500-franc deductible in Oberengstringen, in the canton of Zurich’s third premium region, costs 220.40 francs. In the bordering neighborhood of Frankental in Zurich city, which falls under the canton’s first premium region, the cheapest available offer costs 287.10 francs per month. “So you pay an extra 800 francs per year just because you live a couple of steps closer to the city center,” observes Oeschger.
In the canton of Bern, the cheapest available mandatory health insurance for adult residents with the highest deductible costs between 231.80 and 310.80 francs per month, depending on which of the canton’s premium regions you live in. So residents of some municipalities have to pay nearly 950 francs more per year than their neighbors, even when both use the cheapest insurance available at their address.
More on this topic:
Compare Swiss health insurance now
Deductible calculator
How to cut the cost of mandatory health insurance
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