Supplementary insurance from 60: keep, adjust or cancel?

Why supplementary insurance works differently in old age

Basic health insurance and supplementary insurance are governed by two different laws. Every insurer must offer you basic health insurance under the Federal Health Insurance Act (KVG), and the premium does not rise with age: all adults with the same insurer, in the same model, with the same deductible and in the same place of residence pay the same amount (Art. 61 para. 1 and 3 KVG). The law only has three age groups: children, young adults and adults.

Supplementary insurance, by contrast, is a private contract under the Insurance Contract Act (ICA). The insurer chooses whom it accepts and may grade the premium by age. For you, this has two consequences that become stronger with every year of life: an existing contract is valuable because the insurer may not cancel it with ordinary notice. A new contract is hard to get because the insurer assesses your health.

Step by step: checking your supplementary insurance

1. Gather your policy and general terms and conditions. The policy shows the modules and premiums; the general terms and conditions (GTC) set out benefits, notice periods and the tariff system. If you do not have the GTC, ask the insurer for them.
2. Identify the tariff system. Does the premium depend on your entry age, or does it rise in age bands? With band tariffs, the next increases are shown in the tariff.
3. Assess each module separately. List each module with its annual premium and, next to it, what it has actually paid you in recent years. Ask yourself for each one: could I bear these costs myself?
4. Look for overlaps with basic health insurance. Basic health insurance pays for inpatient treatment in all listed hospitals in your canton of residence and in the canton where the hospital is located, at most according to the tariff of your canton of residence (Art. 41 para. 1bis KVG). Supplementary insurance for the “general ward throughout Switzerland” only covers any difference; exactly what is set out in the GTC.
5. Consider adjusting before cancelling. Ask your insurer in writing which changes are possible: a higher retention fee, switching from private to semi-private, dropping individual modules. Have it confirmed whether a new health questionnaire is required for this.
6. Note the deadline from the GTC. By law, you may cancel at the latest to the end of the third contract year and annually thereafter, with three months’ notice (Art. 35a para. 1 ICA). The contract may allow earlier cancellation, with the same notice periods for both sides (Art. 35a para. 2 ICA). Your policy is what counts.
7. Never cancel before the new contract is in place. If you want to switch to another insurer, only cancel once it has accepted your application in writing and without an unexpected reservation.

The legal rules in detail

Only you may cancel with ordinary notice

Since the revision of the ICA, in force since 01.01.2022, a special rule applies to supplementary insurance to health insurance: the ordinary right of cancellation and the right of cancellation after a claim belong only to the policyholder (Art. 35a para. 4 ICA). The insurer therefore cannot end your contract because you are getting older or claim many benefits. Cancellation for good cause remains possible for both sides (Art. 35b ICA), as does cancellation if you concealed a fact you were asked about when taking out the policy (Art. 6 ICA).

This special rule does not apply to collective daily allowance insurance; there, both sides may cancel (Art. 35a para. 4 ICA).

New contracts: health questions, reservation, rejection

For a new contract, the insurer asks written health questions. You must state all material facts it asks about that you know or ought to know (Art. 4 ICA). The insurer may reject the application, accept it with a reservation for certain illnesses or charge a higher premium. You can revoke an application within 14 days (Art. 2a ICA).

In old age, it is more likely that you will have to declare previous findings. That is why the existing contract is often what cannot be replaced: it continues without a new health assessment as long as you do not cancel it.

Premiums: entry age, age bands and supervision

Insurers structure supplementary insurance in two ways: with a tariff by entry age, the premium is based on your age when you took out the policy; the insurer builds up ageing reserves for this. With a tariff by age band, the premium rises as soon as you move into a higher band. Both also change with general tariff adjustments.

The insurer must submit the tariffs and GTC of supplementary health insurance to FINMA (Art. 4 para. 2 let. r of the Insurance Supervision Act, ISA). FINMA checks whether the premiums secure the insurer’s solvency and protect insured persons from abuse (Art. 38 para. 1 ISA). If the insurer changes the GTC, you can request that your contract continues on the new conditions, against a possibly higher premium (Art. 35 ICA). Whether you can cancel with extraordinary notice after a premium increase is set out in your GTC.

Two rules of the Insurance Supervision Ordinance (AVO) directly affect older insured persons:

• Surrender value: If your contract provides that you receive part of the ageing reserves back on early termination, the insurer must inform you of the amount at least once a year, on request and when premiums are adjusted (Art. 155 para. 5 AVO).
• Closed portfolio: If the insurer no longer accepts new insured persons into your product, you have the right to a contract that is as equivalent as possible from an open portfolio, if there is one. Your age and health at the time of the original contract are decisive (Art. 156 AVO).

Changing basic health insurance, keeping supplementary insurance

Basic health insurance and supplementary insurance are separate contracts. You can change your basic health insurance and keep your supplementary insurance with your previous insurer. Your previous insurer may not force you to cancel your supplementary insurance as well (Art. 7 para. 7 KVG), and it may not cancel it solely because of the switch (Art. 7 para. 8 KVG). You change your basic health insurance to 1 January if your notice of cancellation reaches the insurer by 30 November (Art. 7 para. 2 KVG). The page Switching health insurer shows the procedure, and the deadline calculator shows the dates.

Figures: what becomes more expensive in old age and what does not

Public premium data exist for basic health insurance. They show that age plays no role there. Premiums 2026, municipality of Zurich (region 1), adults, with accident cover, median of all 128 offers; source: FOPH:

There are no comparable public data for supplementary insurance. The premium depends on the product, your entry age or age band, sex, region and retention fee. Only the insurer’s quote is binding. We explain how we present premiums under How we calculate. The FOPH publishes the following year’s premiums at the end of September.

Example calculation: keep, adjust or cancel

Example with fictitious people. Heinz, 63, has had semi-private hospital insurance and supplementary outpatient insurance for 20 years. The premiums are a sample contract, not the premiums of a specific insurer.

The calculation shows where the money goes; which variant suits you depends on which risks you can and want to bear yourself. It is not a recommendation. What counts are the GTC and the information from your insurer. Where a personal assessment helps, you can submit a non-binding enquiry.

Special cases

Supplementary insurance through your employer

If supplementary insurance ran through your employer’s collective contract, it ends as soon as you no longer belong to the insured group of persons; whether this is the case on retirement is set out in the collective contract. Whether and on what terms you can transfer to an individual contract is governed by the GTC of the collective contract. For daily allowance insurance under the KVG, you have a statutory right of transfer without new reservations (Art. 71 KVG). The article Retired: reinstating accident cover explains what else to do on retirement, such as reinstating accident cover.

Moving abroad

If you move abroad after retirement, whether you remain in Swiss basic health insurance depends on your new country of residence; the article Pensioners abroad explains this. Whether supplementary insurance continues, for example whether it requires residence in Switzerland, is determined by the GTC. Ask in writing before you move.

Couples and supplementary benefits

Each person has their own contract, even if both are on one policy. If you cancel for yourself, your partner’s contract remains in place. If you receive supplementary benefits, they only recognise a flat-rate amount for basic health insurance as an expense; health insurance premiums beyond that are excluded (Art. 10 para. 3 let. c and d of the Federal Act on Supplementary Benefits, ELG). You then pay for supplementary insurance from your other income. The article Premium subsidies and supplementary benefits explains how supplementary benefits and premium subsidies interact.

Common mistakes

• Cancelling before the new contract has been accepted. If the new insurer rejects you, you are left without supplementary insurance.
• Cancelling the whole policy instead of adjusting it. Dropping individual modules or increasing the retention fee saves premium and keeps the rest without a new health assessment.
• Answering health questions inaccurately for a new contract. The insurer may cancel the contract if you concealed a fact you were asked about (Art. 6 ICA).
• Cancelling supplementary insurance along with basic health insurance. This is not necessary; your previous insurer must continue the supplementary insurance (Art. 7 para. 7 and 8 KVG).
• Overlooking the deadline in the GTC. The notice period for supplementary insurance is not the same as that for basic health insurance.

The article Comparing health insurance for pensioners explains how to compare basic health insurance in retirement. You will find key figures and contact details for the insurers in the health insurer profiles, and what supplementary insurance covers at all in the overview Supplementary insurance. All topics relating to retirement are in the Retirement and old age section.