Key points at a glance
- If you are resident in Switzerland, you must take out basic health insurance within three months (Art. 3 para. 1 KVG).
- Residence is defined by the Civil Code: the place where you live with the intention of staying permanently (Art. 23 ZGB).
- Nobody can be resident in several places at the same time; staying somewhere for education does not in itself establish residence.
- The premium depends on where you live, meaning the canton and premium region of your municipality (Art. 61 para. 2 KVG).
- If you move your residence abroad, the requirement to take out insurance generally ends (Art. 5 para. 3 KVG).
What is residence?
Residence (in the sense of domicile) is a term from the Swiss Civil Code (ZGB). It refers to the place where a person lives with the intention of staying permanently. What is meant is the centre of your life: where you live, sleep, and have your family and relationships. The law looks at where you actually stay and at this intention, not at a form.
Health insurance adopts this term unchanged. This is why it is called the residence principle: if you are resident in Switzerland, you are subject to the requirement to take out insurance, regardless of nationality, income or place of work. Conversely, people who are not resident in Switzerland only have to take out insurance if a special rule applies, for example for cross-border commuters, short-term residents or pensioners in the EU.
Residence plays three roles in health insurance: it triggers the requirement to take out insurance and the three-month deadline to take out insurance. Through the canton and premium region, it determines the amount of the premium. And it decides which insurers and insurance models are open to you.
How it works
Only one residence. Nobody can be resident in several places at the same time. Once established, a residence remains in place until a new one is established.
Education, care homes, hospitals. Staying somewhere for education, or being placed in a care home, a hospital or a prison, does not in itself establish residence. Students therefore often keep their residence with their parents.
Children. Children under parental responsibility have the residence of their parents. If the parents live apart, the residence of the parent who has custody of the child applies.
Premium. Your insurer sets the premium according to the canton and premium region of the place where you live. What counts is the municipality you live in, not your place of work. If you move, your insurer adjusts the premium.
Moving within Switzerland. If your insurer does not operate in your new place of residence, the insurance ends when you move and you choose a new insurer. Models with a restricted choice of service provider are only open to people resident in the area in which the insurer offers the model.
Moving abroad. If you move your residence abroad, the requirement to take out insurance generally ends, and so does basic health insurance. Exceptions apply, among others, to posted workers and to certain pensioners in the EU. Details under moving abroad.
Legal basis
Art. 3 para. 1 of the Health Insurance Act (KVG) requires every person resident in Switzerland to take out insurance within three months. For the definition of residence, Art. 1 para. 1 KVV refers to Art. 23–26 ZGB; Art. 13 para. 1 ATSG does the same for all social insurance schemes and additionally defines habitual residence in para. 2.
Art. 23 ZGB defines residence as the place where a person lives with the intention of staying permanently; education and placement in an institution do not in themselves establish residence, and nobody can be resident in several places at the same time. Art. 24 ZGB governs how residence continues, and Art. 25 ZGB the residence of children.
Art. 61 para. 2 KVG makes the place of residence the basis for grading premiums; para. 2bis allows regional grading. Art. 7 para. 3 KVG ends the insurance relationship if you have to leave your insurer because of a move. Under Art. 5 para. 3 KVG, the insurance ends when the requirement to take out insurance no longer applies.
For people not resident in Switzerland, Art. 1 para. 2 KVV provides for exceptions, for example for cross-border commuters resident in the EU. If you can be exempted under the Agreement on the Free Movement of Persons and have equivalent cover in your country of residence, you can apply to be exempted (Art. 2 para. 6 KVV).
Example: same person, different residence
Nina, 34, works in Zurich. She is considering whether to live in Zurich, Winterthur, Lucerne or Geneva. Her place of work makes no difference to the premium, but her residence does. The table shows the monthly premiums for 2026 for people born in 1992, with a CHF 2,500 deductible and accident cover (source FOPH, premiums 2026).
| Municipality of residence | Premium region | Cheapest | Median | Most expensive |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zurich | ZH, region 1 | CHF 389.40 | CHF 453.90 | CHF 595.70 |
| Winterthur | ZH, region 2 | CHF 347.30 | CHF 400.00 | CHF 509.40 |
| Lucerne | LU, region 1 | CHF 323.30 | CHF 385.80 | CHF 512.60 |
| Geneva | GE, region 0 | CHF 476.00 | CHF 541.10 | CHF 785.50 |
The premium calculator shows the premiums for your municipality. You can see which insurers operate in your region under health insurers.
What this means for you
- Report your move. Give your insurer your new address. It calculates the premium based on your new place of residence. Then check whether your insurer and your insurance model are still the best choice in the new place.
- Check your insurer in the new place. If your insurer does not operate there or does not offer your model, you have to switch. How to do this is explained under switching health insurer.
- Moving to Switzerland from abroad. The three-month deadline to take out insurance starts on the day you take up residence. If you are late, you pay a surcharge.
- Moving abroad. Deregister with your municipality and your insurer and arrange insurance cover in your new country. Special rules apply to the Swiss abroad.
Common mistakes
- Taking your place of work for your residence. The premium depends on where you live. If you live in Geneva and work in Zurich, you pay Geneva premiums.
- Treating a weekday residence as a second residence. There is only one residence; what counts is the centre of your life.
- Not reporting your move. The premium depends on where you live. If your insurer has the wrong address, your premium will be wrong too.
- Not informing your insurer when you move abroad. If you do not deregister, your insurer does not know that your requirement to take out insurance has ended and keeps billing you for premiums.
How we calculate premium comparisons is explained under How we calculate.
Frequently asked questions
Where is my residence if I live somewhere else during the week?
What counts is the place where you live with the intention of staying permanently, in other words the centre of your life. You can only have one residence. The premium is based on this place, not on where you stay during the week.
As a student, am I insured where I study?
Staying somewhere for education does not in itself establish residence. If you only move to another city to study, you usually keep your previous residence and therefore its premium region.
What happens to my health insurance when I move?
You tell your insurer your new address, and it adjusts the premium to your new place of residence. If the insurer does not operate in the new place, the insurance ends when you move and you must choose a new insurer.
Do I need Swiss health insurance if I live abroad and work in Switzerland?
Cross-border commuters from the EU are in principle subject to Swiss insurance even though they are not resident here. Depending on the country of residence, there is a right of option. The details are on the page on cross-border commuters.
Related terms
- Requirement to take out health insuranceThe requirement to take out insurance (Versicherungspflicht) means that anyone who lives in Switzerland must take out basic health insurance under the Health Insurance Act (KVG). You have 3 months from arrival or birth to do so, and cover then applies retroactively. If you join later, you are only insured from the date you join and, depending on the delay, pay a premium surcharge of 30 to 50%.
- Cross-border commuterCross-border commuters live abroad, work in Switzerland and usually return to their place of residence every day or at least once a week. If you come from an EU or EFTA state or the United Kingdom, you generally have to take out health insurance in Switzerland within three months of starting work. If you live in Germany, France, Italy or Austria, you can choose your country of residence instead.
- Moving abroadWhen you move abroad, your basic health insurance generally ends on the day you leave Switzerland, without a notice period. You report the move to your health insurer with the deregistration certificate from your municipality. Exceptions apply to pensioners, cross-border commuters and posted workers in the EU, EFTA and the United Kingdom. Supplementary insurance continues according to the contract.
- Three-month deadline to take out insuranceThe three-month deadline to take out insurance is the period within which you must take out health insurance after moving to Switzerland or after the birth of a child. It is three months. If you register in time, basic health insurance applies retroactively from the day you took up residence or from the birth.
- Premium regionA premium region is the area within a canton for which a health insurer charges the same basic health insurance premium. The Federal Department of Home Affairs (FDHA) assigns every municipality to Region 1, 2 or 3. In 2026, 11 cantons have several regions and 15 have only one. What counts is your municipality of residence, not your postcode.
- Swiss abroadThe Swiss abroad are Swiss nationals who live outside Switzerland. Moving abroad usually ends compulsory basic health insurance, because it is tied to residence in Switzerland. Exceptions apply to posted workers, federal staff and people with a Swiss pension living in EU and EFTA states. When you return, you must take out insurance within three months.
Sources
- Federal Health Insurance Act (KVG), Art. 3Art. 3 para. 1 KVGfedlex.admin.ch
- Health Insurance Ordinance (KVV), Art. 1Art. 1 KVVfedlex.admin.ch
- Swiss Civil Code (ZGB), Art. 23–26Art. 23–26 ZGBfedlex.admin.ch
- Federal Act on the General Part of Social Insurance Law (ATSG), Art. 13Art. 13 ATSGfedlex.admin.ch
- Federal Health Insurance Act (KVG), Art. 61Art. 61 para. 2 KVGfedlex.admin.ch
- Federal Health Insurance Act (KVG), Art. 7Art. 7 para. 3 KVGfedlex.admin.ch
- Health Insurance Ordinance (KVV), Art. 2Art. 2 para. 6 KVVfedlex.admin.ch
- FOPH: Health insurance premiums 2026 (opendata.swiss)opendata.swiss