Cancelling by email or registered mail? Rules for basic and supplementary insurance

The form is rarely the problem, the proof is

Anyone who wants to cancel their health insurance by email is usually asking the wrong question. What matters is not whether an email “counts”, but whether you can later prove that your notice of cancellation reached the health insurer in time. For basic health insurance, what counts is receipt, not sending, and in a dispute it is you who has to prove receipt: under Art. 8 of the Swiss Civil Code (CC), whoever derives rights from a fact must prove it.

Different rules apply to basic and supplementary insurance:

Basic health insurance: what the law requires

Art. 7 of the Federal Health Insurance Act (KVG) governs when you can cancel your basic health insurance: after the premium notification with one month’s notice to the end of the year (para. 2), otherwise with three months’ notice to the end of June or December (para. 1). The article contains no requirement as to form. In its fact sheet and in its sample letters on priminfo.admin.ch, the FOPH assumes a written notice of cancellation with a signature and recommends sending it by registered mail or A Mail Plus by 15 November.

Some health insurers also accept cancellations by email, via a form on their website or in the customer portal. Whether and how is up to the health insurer itself. If you use one of these methods, the same applies as for a letter: the notice of cancellation must be with the health insurer by 30 November, and you need proof of this.

What counts as proof

According to Swiss Post, registered letters are delivered on the next working day (Monday to Friday) and A Mail Plus on the next working day from Monday to Saturday. According to the FOPH, a registered letter placed in the health insurer’s PO box is only deemed delivered when the health insurer collects it from the post office. This is another reason why the FOPH recommends sending it by mid-November; in 2026, 15 November falls on a Sunday.

The cancellation letter generator creates a finished letter with all the details:

Supplementary insurance: email is expressly permitted

For supplementary insurance, the Insurance Contract Act (ICA) itself governs the form. Under Art. 35a para. 1 ICA, you can cancel the contract “in writing or in any other form that allows proof by text”. An email allows proof by text; the provision does not require a handwritten signature. The same applies to cancellation for good cause (Art. 35b para. 1 ICA).

Two further rules strengthen your position:

• No stricter form through the general terms and conditions. Art. 35a ICA is one of the provisions that the contract may not change to the detriment of the policyholder (Art. 98 ICA).
• Also for old contracts. The form requirements and the right of cancellation under Art. 35a and 35b ICA also apply to contracts concluded before 1 January 2022 (Art. 103a ICA).

So for supplementary insurance, the form is simple, but the deadline is not. It is set out in your contract and the general terms and conditions; the law allows ordinary cancellation at the end of the third or any subsequent year with three months’ notice. The health insurer itself may not give ordinary notice in supplementary health insurance (Art. 35a para. 4 ICA). More on this under Cancelling supplementary insurance; the general terms and conditions and the information from your health insurer prevail.

Here too: the email is only as good as the proof. In the email, ask the health insurer for written confirmation with the date on which the contract ends, and keep it with your email.

How to cancel safely, whichever method you use

1. Keep basic and supplementary insurance separate. State exactly what you are cancelling in the subject line, for example “Cancellation of basic health insurance as of 31.12.2026”. If you want to keep your supplementary insurance, say so explicitly. How this works is explained in the article Cancelling basic health insurance and keeping supplementary insurance.
2. Give all the details. Name, address, date of birth, insurance number, the insurance being cancelled, the date, a request for confirmation. Our cancellation letter generator creates a sample cancellation letter with these fields.
3. Choose the method according to the deadline. If there is more than a week left until the key date, a method with proof is enough. If time is short, every day counts: according to Swiss Post, registered mail and A Mail Plus are delivered on the next working day; an email only proves receipt with confirmation from the health insurer.
4. Use the right address. Some health insurers have a separate address or email for cancellations. The contact details are in the health insurer’s profile under Health insurers.
5. Keep proof. Keep the receipt, tracking or email with confirmation until the confirmation of cancellation has arrived and the new insurance is running. When switching on 1 January, the confirmation often only comes in December or January, because the old health insurer only writes once the new one has reported uninterrupted cover (Art. 7 para. 5 KVG).

The deadline calculator shows all the key dates for your situation.

Example: two cancellations, two methods

Example with fictitious people. Aylin, 31, wants to switch her basic health insurance for 2027 and cancel her supplementary insurance for dental treatment. According to her general terms and conditions, the supplementary insurance runs by calendar year and can be cancelled with three months’ notice; she has been insured for more than three years.

If Aylin had only cancelled her basic health insurance by email at 10 p.m. on 30.11.2026, she would have cancelled outside normal business hours and would have had no proof of receipt. What you can do in such a case is shown in the article Notice of cancellation arrived too late.

Common mistakes

• Sending an email on the last evening. What counts is receipt during normal business hours. Your email program’s sending confirmation does not prove receipt.
• Sending an ordinary letter without tracking. If it gets lost or the health insurer disputes receipt, you have no proof.
• Announcing the cancellation by phone and then forgetting it. A phone call leaves no proof in text form. Always cancel in writing or by email with confirmation.
• Leaving the cancellation to an intermediary. The FOPH advises always cancelling yourself so that you have the proof in hand.
• Mixing basic and supplementary insurance in one email. Unclear wording leads to queries or to the wrong contract being cancelled.

All deadlines at a glance are under Health insurance notice periods, and Switching health insurer shows the whole procedure. You will find further articles in the Switching health insurer section.