Cancellations and changes
Health insurance change:
Observe termination dates
Find out here how and when you can make a health insurance change:
Basic insurance
Health insurance contracts cannot be terminated or changed at any time. Here you can see the most important basics.
The basic insurance KVG (Health Insurance Act) can be terminated every year with a 3-month notice period to the end of the year. As soon as the premiums are changed, there is an extraordinary right of cancellation of 1 month from the announcement of the new tariff. This is the most known health insurance storm in November, because mostly the tariffs of the basic insurance are announced in October (click here for the current tariffs).
After this announcement you have an extraordinary right of cancellation of 1 month, which therefore falls on the end of November. You have until the end of November to cancel your current health insurance as of December 31. of the current year.
At the same time, you should look for an alternative basic insurance that is cheaper, and this until 01.01. at the latest have completed. This is because the New Health Insurance Company will send a confirmation to your old insurer so that the old insurer can complete the cancellation.
Find out here how and when you can make a health insurance change:
Supplementary insurances
Changing supplemental insurance is not the same as changing basic insurance.
This is because supplementary insurance policies have different notice periods. These vary from 3 months to 6 months. Normally, 1-year contracts have a 3-month notice period, and multi-year contracts usually have a 6-month notice period.
Supplementary insurances can thus be cancelled at the end of the contract period, taking into account the corresponding notice period.
If there is a premium adjustment, you will be given an extraordinary right of cancellation, as this constitutes a “contract adjustment” and you could therefore withdraw from the contract beforehand if your contract period has not yet expired.
But be careful: an “age class change” is not a premium adjustment! The age class is already defined when the contract is concluded. In fact, health insurance companies have so-called “age groups.” So if you buy insurance when you’re 24, it’s possible that you’ll have to pay more for the same insurance when you’re 26 because you’ve moved into a new age group. This does not constitute an adjustment and therefore you do not have an extraordinary right of termination.
Important tips for changing health insurance companies
Never cancel supplementary insurance without confirmation of acceptance by the new health insurance company
If you want to change your supplementary insurance, please always wait for the acceptance confirmation of the new health insurance company before you cancel the existing supplementary insurance. Since you usually have to fill out a health declaration when you apply for a new supplementary insurance, your application will be checked by the new health insurance company.
It could therefore happen that the new health insurance company rejects your application on the basis of previous health problems or other risk factors. If you have already cancelled your previous health insurance, you may not be re-enrolled. This would mean that you would then remain without additional insurance!
To avoid this, always apply for a new supplemental insurance policy enough in advance so that you have enough time to wait for the acceptance confirmation and then cancel the existing supplemental insurance policy.
Start postponement against double insurance
Sometimes it happens that when changing health insurance companies, individual products may not have been cancelled after all, or that the acceptance check took so long that the cancellation period has expired in the meantime.
Thus, you would then be insured twice, because the new insurer has now taken you in, but the old insurance has not yet been canceled, or will only be canceled next year.
In these situations, you can request a start-delay from the new health insurance company: you can request individual products, or the whole application for the start-delay – this way you have already done the change work, and the next year everything will change automatically.
Change of franchise – deadlines
You can change your deductible rate with your health insurance company at the end of the year. You can increase the deductible (effective from 01.01.) until 31.12., decrease the dedu ctible (effective from 01.01.) until 30.11.
Cancellation when moving abroad
If you definitely leave Switzerland and move to another country, the insurance obligation in Switzerland does not apply. This also eliminates the insurance itself and therefore you do not have to observe any notice period. It is only important that you send the deregistration confirmation to your health insurance company and inform them that you are leaving Switzerland – this is the only way to cancel the health insurance.
If you have outstanding bills with your current health insurance company, the cancellation will not be accepted.
The health insurance company cannot confirm your cancellation if you still have outstanding bills. Therefore, always check that all bills have been paid by the end of the year before you cancel.
How to cancel my insurance
Recently, you can also cancel your health insurance by email. However, this does not work equally well everywhere. Therefore, in order to be sure that the cancellation is legally valid and works safely, we recommend sending it by registered mail to the corresponding insurance company, taking into account the appropriate notice period. The notice of termination must be received bythe last working day before the notice period at the latest. For example, if the notice is given by 30.11. must have been made, and the 30.11. is a Sunday, then you must make sure that your notice is received by Friday, 28.11. has been received by the relevant company.
Click here for the addresses of the health insurance companies.
