Cancelling supplementary insurance without losing cover

Cancelling supplementary insurance: first the acceptance, then the letter

You can change your basic health insurance every year, and every insurer must accept you. Supplementary insurance lacks this security. It is a private contract under the Insurance Contract Act (ICA): a new insurer may ask health questions and reject you or only accept you with a reservation (Art. 4 ICA). If you cancel your old supplementary insurance before the new one is confirmed, you may end up without cover, and you cannot simply get back supplementary insurance you have cancelled.

This leads to the most important rule of this article: first the new insurer’s written acceptance, then the cancellation of the old one.

Which dates apply is determined by the ICA and your contract together:

The notice of cancellation must be given in writing or in another form that allows proof by text. A letter or an email is sufficient; in the event of a dispute, however, you must prove that it arrived in time.

Step by step: cancelling supplementary insurance without a gap

1. Get out your policy and general terms and conditions. Look for the start of the contract, the term, the notice period and any right of cancellation after a premium increase. If there is nothing special, Art. 35a ICA applies.
2. Work out the cancellation date. Take the end of the third or a later contract year and count back 3 months. If your contract starts on 01.01., the contract year ends on 31.12., and the notice of cancellation must reach the insurer by 30.09.
3. Apply for new supplementary insurance. Apply early enough for the insurer to decide before your cancellation date. Answer the health questions in full.
4. Wait for the acceptance and read it. Check the start date, benefits, any reservations and waiting periods. Only continue once you have the policy or a written acceptance.
5. Cancel, with proof. State your insurance number, the exact product and the date. Send the letter by registered mail or get a confirmation of receipt.
6. Request confirmation. The insurer should confirm the end of the contract to you in writing. If there is no confirmation after 2 weeks, follow up.
7. Decide on basic health insurance separately. If you also want to change your basic health insurance, different dates apply: after the premium notification, your notice of cancellation to the end of the year must reach the insurer by 30 November (Art. 7 para. 2 KVG).

The rules in detail

Ordinary cancellation under Art. 35a ICA

Any supplementary insurance can be cancelled to the end of the third or any subsequent year, even if the contract was concluded for a longer period (Art. 35a para. 1 ICA). A multi-year contract for five or ten years therefore binds you for three years at most. The parties can agree on earlier cancellation, for example annually; the notice periods must then be the same for both sides (Art. 35a para. 2 ICA). These rules have applied since 01.01.2022 and, under Art. 103a ICA, also to contracts concluded before then.

What counts is the contract year, not always the calendar year. If a contract starts on 01.04., the third contract year ends on 31.03. The term cancelling supplementary insurance explains further details on the deadline.

Only you may cancel with ordinary notice

In supplementary insurance to social 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 cancel your contract because you are getting older, are ill or submit many bills. This is a strong argument for keeping an existing contract as long as it suits you. The insurer may only cancel for special reasons, for example because of health information concealed in the application (Art. 6 ICA) or for good cause (Art. 35b ICA).

The policyholder is the person who took out the policy. For children, this is usually the parents; they then also cancel.

Cancellation after a claim

If supplementary insurance has to pay for a claim, you can withdraw from the contract at the latest when the benefit is paid out (Art. 42 para. 1 ICA). Cover ends 14 days after your notification (Art. 42 para. 2 ICA). In principle, you only owe the premium until the end of the contract (Art. 24 para. 1 ICA); if you cancel in the year after the contract was concluded, the insurer may keep the premium for the current insurance period (Art. 42 para. 3 ICA). Details under cancellation after a claim.

Renewal and ageing reserves

If nobody cancels, a contract with a renewal clause is tacitly renewed, but for no more than one year at a time (Art. 47 ICA). Some products build up ageing reserves. If the insurer provides for refunding part of them on early termination, it must inform you of this surrender value: at least once a year, on request and when premiums are adjusted (Art. 155 of the Insurance Supervision Ordinance, AVO). Ask about this before cancelling.

Dates: example for contracts by calendar year

The table shows the statutory dates under Art. 35a para. 1 ICA for a contract that starts on 01.01. and does not provide for a shorter term. If your policy contains other rules, these apply; however, the contract may not deviate from Art. 35a ICA to your disadvantage (Art. 98 ICA).

After the first date, you can cancel every year to 31.12., again with receipt by 30.09. If you miss the date, the contract runs for another year. The dates for basic health insurance are in the deadline calculator.

Example: switching hospital insurance without a gap

Example with fictitious people. Daniel, 47, has had semi-private supplementary hospital insurance since 01.01.2023. His general terms and conditions do not provide for a shorter term. On 25.08.2026, he finds a product with another insurer that suits him better.

Special cases

Changing only basic health insurance. This is always possible on the KVG dates; the supplementary insurance can stay. Your previous insurer may neither force you to cancel the supplementary insurance nor cancel it solely because of the switch (Art. 7 para. 7 and 8 KVG). The article Cancelling basic health insurance and keeping supplementary insurance describes the procedure, and you compare premiums in the premium calculator.

Cancelling only one product. If you have several supplementary insurance policies, for example hospital and outpatient, you can cancel some and keep others. State exactly in your letter which product is to end. Whether products only run as a package is set out in the policy.

Reducing cover instead of cancelling. Instead of cancelling completely, depending on the product you can switch to a lower level, for example from private to semi-private. Ask in writing beforehand whether a later increase will trigger health questions again; what counts are the GTC and the information from the insurer.

Premium increase. There is no statutory special right of cancellation. If your policy provides for one, the deadline stated there applies. The article Premium increase in supplementary insurance explains how to deal with this.

Unwanted contract through an intermediary. You can revoke a new application within 14 days (Art. 2a ICA). The article Unwanted supplementary insurance shows what is still possible after that.

Previous illness or ongoing therapy. In this case, a new contract is often only available with a reservation or not at all. Check carefully whether cancelling is worth it; the article Previously in therapy explains what applies in the application.

Common mistakes

• Cancelling before the new insurer has accepted you. The cancellation cannot be withdrawn unilaterally. If you are rejected, you have no cover.
• Applying 30 November. This date applies to basic health insurance. In supplementary insurance, the contract and the ICA count, for contracts by calendar year often 30 September.
• Relying on the postmark. The notice of cancellation must reach the insurer within the deadline. Send it early and with proof.
• Cancelling basic and supplementary insurance in the same sentence without meaning to. State exactly which contracts are to end.
• Forgetting cover after cancelling following a claim. It ends 14 days after notification. You can still submit bills for treatment up to then.

You will find more on hospital, outpatient and dental insurance in the Supplementary insurance section. An overview of the insurers is under Health insurers, and Switching insurer shows the entire procedure for changing health insurer.