Unwanted supplementary insurance through an intermediary: how to get out

After the meeting with an intermediary: which way out fits?

A phone call, a home visit, a meeting at a shopping centre: in the end, you have signed an application for supplementary hospital or outpatient insurance that you did not really want. The good news: the Insurance Contract Act (ICA) gives you several ways out of the contract. Which one fits depends mainly on how much time has passed since you signed.

Supplementary insurance is a private-law contract. Unlike basic health insurance, there is no obligation to accept you, but you do have these rights to withdraw. Basic health insurance has its own rules (see special cases below).

Step by step out of the contract

1. Find the date you signed. Look for the application, the record of the advice meeting or the email with the digital confirmation. You count from that day. If it was less than 14 days ago, go straight to step 3.
2. Calculate the deadline. The day of the application does not count (Art. 77 of the Code of Obligations, CO, via Art. 100 ICA). If the last day falls on a Sunday or public holiday, the next working day applies (Art. 78 CO).
3. Send the revocation to the insurer. It goes to the insurer, not the intermediary. A letter or an email is enough, a phone call is not (Art. 2a para. 1 ICA). State your name, date of birth, application or policy number and the sentence “I hereby revoke my application of [date] for the supplementary insurance [product] in accordance with Art. 2a ICA.” You do not need to give a reason.
4. Secure proof. Send a letter by registered mail, or an email with a copy to yourself. The deadline is met if you send it on the last day (Art. 2a para. 3 ICA).
5. Ask for confirmation. Ask the insurer in writing to confirm that the application is ineffective and that premiums you have paid will be refunded.
6. If the deadline has passed: check your documents. Did you have the general terms and conditions and the information about the right of revocation before the application? If something is missing, consider cancelling under Art. 3a ICA (section below). Otherwise, cancel with ordinary notice; you can create the letter with the cancellation letter generator.

The rules in detail

Revocation: 14 days without giving reasons

The right of revocation has applied since 01.01.2022 to all contracts under the ICA, including supplementary health insurance. The deadline is 14 days and starts as soon as you have applied for or accepted the contract (Art. 2a para. 2 ICA). With the revocation, your application is ineffective from the outset; the insurer refunds premiums you have paid, and you return any benefits received (Art. 2b paras 1 and 2 ICA). Only where fairness requires it do you have to reimburse costs for special investigations, such as a medical examination (Art. 2b para. 3 ICA).

Revocation is excluded for collective personal insurance, provisional cover commitments and contracts with a term of less than one month (Art. 2a para. 4 ICA).

Cancellation if information was missing

Before the application, the insurer must inform you about, among other things, the risks insured, the premiums, the term and termination, and the right of revocation with its form and deadline (Art. 3 para. 1 ICA). You must have the general terms and conditions in hand at the time of the application (Art. 3 para. 2 ICA). If the insurer has breached this duty, you may cancel; the cancellation takes effect as soon as it reaches the insurer. The right lapses 4 weeks after you have found out about the breach and the missing information, at the latest 2 years after the breach (Art. 3a ICA).

The intermediary also has duties: before the application, they must give you their name and address, say whether they work as a tied or untied intermediary and for which insurers, and who is liable for errors (Art. 45 of the Insurance Supervision Act, ISA). Untied intermediaries must also disclose their remuneration (Art. 45b ISA).

Contesting for deception

If someone deliberately deceived you, for example by claiming that the supplementary insurance was compulsory or that it would lower your premium, the contract is not binding on you (Art. 28 para. 1 CO). If the deception came from the intermediary, this only applies against the insurer if it knew or should have known of the deception (Art. 28 para. 2 CO). You must declare to the insurer within 1 year of discovery that you will not uphold the contract, otherwise it is deemed ratified (Art. 31 CO). The burden of proof is on you. That is why notes on the conversation, advertising material and the record of the advice meeting matter.

Extraordinary and ordinary cancellation

For good cause, you can cancel at any time in writing or by email if, in good faith, you cannot reasonably be expected to continue the contract (Art. 35b ICA). In a dispute, a court decides what counts as good cause; an unwanted contract alone is not certain to be enough.

That leaves ordinary cancellation: under Art. 35a para. 1 ICA, you can cancel any contract at the end of the third or any subsequent year with 3 months’ notice. Many general terms and conditions allow earlier cancellation, for example at the end of each calendar year (Art. 35a para. 2 ICA). In supplementary health insurance, only the policyholder, i.e. the person who took out the policy, may cancel with ordinary notice, not the insurer (Art. 35a para. 4 ICA). The notice period for your contract is set out in the general terms and conditions and the policy; the general terms and conditions and the information from your insurer are decisive. You can check the date with the deadline calculator. The details are in the article Cancelling supplementary insurance.

Deadlines and amounts at a glance

Rule	Value	Legal basis
Revocation deadline	14 days from application or acceptance	Art. 2a para. 2 ICA
Cancellation if information was missing	4 weeks from finding out, at most 2 years	Art. 3a para. 2 ICA
Contesting for deception	1 year from discovery	Art. 31 CO
Ordinary cancellation at the latest	end of 3rd contract year, 3 months’ notice	Art. 35a para. 1 ICA
Maximum intermediary remuneration, supplementary insurance	16 net monthly premiums per contract	Art. 190e AVO, Annex 7
Repayment by the intermediary	100 % if the contract ends by day 365, at least 50 % by day 730	Art. 190e AVO, Annex 7

The last two rows explain why it pays to look closely: most of the possible intermediary commission comes from supplementary insurance, not from basic health insurance. Since 01.09.2024, the Federal Council has declared parts of the industry agreement binding on all insurers. If you end a contract in the first year, the intermediary loses their entire remuneration for it. This does not change your rights; but it explains why some intermediaries push for quick contracts. More on this in the article Intermediary commission.

Example: revocation on day 12

Example with fictitious people. Rosa is 71 and lives in Bern. On Tuesday, 06.10.2026, she is visited by an intermediary who arranged the appointment by phone. On a tablet, she signs an application for semi-private supplementary hospital insurance. Her daughter reads the documents at the weekend and realises: Rosa only wanted to compare her basic health insurance.

If Rosa had only noticed the mistake in December, the revocation would have been too late. She would then have checked whether she had received the general terms and conditions and the information on the right of revocation before the application. If both were missing, she could have cancelled under Art. 3a ICA within 4 weeks of finding this out.

Because the appointment was arranged through a phone call, Rosa’s daughter also reports the call to the reporting office fair-mittler.ch. Cold calling by phone is prohibited for all insurers and their intermediaries. What helps with such calls is described in the article Spam calls from health insurers.

Special cases

The intermediary also switched your basic health insurance

There is no right of revocation for basic health insurance; it is laid down in the ICA and only applies to supplementary insurance. You switch basic health insurance under Art. 7 of the Federal Health Insurance Act (KVG) and Art. 94 and 100 of the Health Insurance Ordinance (KVV): notice of cancellation must reach the insurer by 30 November for the end of the year, and with the standard deductible in the standard model also by 31 March for the end of June. The benefits are the same with all insurers, so switching is mainly a question of the premium. If the intermediary moved you to a more expensive insurer, compare in the premium calculator and switch on the next date. All steps are under Switching health insurer, the insurers’ data in the health insurer profiles.

Your old supplementary insurance has already been cancelled

Some intermediaries have your existing supplementary insurance cancelled straight away. A cancellation takes effect when it reaches the insurer. Ask your previous insurer immediately in writing whether it will continue the contract; it is not obliged to. If it does not, and you revoke the new application, you are left without supplementary insurance. What applies then is explained in the article Gap without a contract.

Parents, grandparents and other relatives

Whoever signed the application as policyholder must also revoke or cancel it. Relatives can help write the letter or act with a written power of attorney. Speed is what matters: the 14 days run even if nobody has read the documents.

Collective insurance through your employer

Collective personal insurance is excluded from the right of revocation (Art. 2a para. 4 ICA). The rules of the collective contract apply here.

Dispute with the insurer

If the insurer refuses to accept the revocation or cancellation, you can contact the Office of the health insurance ombudsperson free of charge. It is also responsible for supplementary insurance, but cannot issue binding decisions. For supplementary insurance, a civil court decides in a dispute.

Common mistakes

• Declaring the revocation by phone. A call does not give you proof in text form. The law requires a letter, an email or a comparable form.
• Writing to the intermediary instead of the insurer. The revocation must go to the insurance company. At most, the intermediary receives a copy.
• Counting the deadline from receipt of the policy. The 14 days run from the application or acceptance. If you wait for the policy, you often miss the deadline.
• Cancelling everything at once. If, out of annoyance, you also cancel existing supplementary insurance, the new insurer can turn you down because of your health. Only end the unwanted policy.
• Confirming an incorrect record of the advice meeting. If the appointment came about through an unwanted phone call, the confirmation “no cold calling by phone” is not true. Do not sign it.

Whether you need supplementary insurance at all, and which kind, is explained in the topic Supplementary insurance. How supplementary hospital insurance works where you only choose the ward in hospital is covered in the article Flex hospital insurance. If you would like advice on supplementary insurance without a call you did not ask for, you can request advice; how we are paid is set out under Disclosure.