Cancelling health insurance: deadline, letter and procedure

Cancelling health insurance: what you are really cancelling

When people “cancel their health insurance”, they usually only cancel their basic health insurance. It is compulsory, so you cannot simply end it, only take it with you to another insurer. Cancellation is therefore always the first part of changing health insurer: you cancel with the old insurer and register with the new one. Supplementary insurance policies are separate contracts under the Insurance Contract Act (ICA) with their own deadlines. They continue until you cancel them separately.

The most important dates for basic health insurance:

What counts is the day on which your insurer receives the notice of cancellation, not the postmark. The deadline is met if the letter is there during normal business hours on the last day. If the deadline falls on a Saturday, Sunday or public holiday, according to the FOPH’s information on priminfo.admin.ch, the last working day before applies. 30.11.2026 is a Monday, so the deadline ends on that day. The article Health insurance notice periods explains all deadlines in detail.

Step by step: how to cancel basic health insurance

1. Wait for the new premiums and compare. The FOPH recommends not taking out new basic health insurance for 1 January before the premiums have been approved. The FOPH publishes the following year’s premiums at the end of September. Your insurer must notify you of the new premium at least two months in advance, i.e. by 31 October for 1 January, and inform you of your right to switch (Art. 7 para. 2 KVG). You can compare in the premium calculator.
2. Check unpaid bills. If you have received a reminder for premiums or co-payments, pay everything for which you received a reminder by 30 November by 31 December. Otherwise, the notice of cancellation has no effect (see “When a notice of cancellation has no effect” below).
3. Write the notice of cancellation. What has to go in it is explained in the next section. Our cancellation letter generator creates a sample cancellation letter with all the details; the FOPH also provides sample letters on priminfo.admin.ch.
4. Send it by mid-November. The FOPH recommends sending the written notice of cancellation by registered mail or A-Post Plus by 15 November. In 2026, 15 November falls on a Sunday, so post the letter the week before. Keep the receipt with the tracking number.
5. Register with the new insurer at the same time. Do not wait for confirmation from the old insurer. The new insurer must accept you without health questions, reservations or a waiting period. You do not need a quote beforehand; registration usually takes place via an application form.
6. Wait for confirmations. The new insurer notifies the old one that you are insured without interruption. The old insurer then sends you the confirmation of cancellation. When switching on 1 January, it often only arrives in December or January.
7. Decide on supplementary insurance separately. Do not cancel it in the same sentence. More on this below.

The deadline calculator shows the dates for your situation, including for supplementary insurance with a contract start date and term:

What goes in the cancellation letter

The KVG does not prescribe a specific form for cancellation. In its documents, the FOPH assumes a written notice of cancellation, and its sample letter on priminfo.admin.ch shows which details the insurer needs:

If you also cancel for your children or your partner, list each person with their name, date of birth and insurance number. You will find the insurer’s address and contact details in its profile under Health insurers.

Sending: registered mail, A-Post Plus or email?

Because receipt is what counts, in the event of a dispute you must be able to prove that the notice of cancellation arrived on time. That is why the FOPH recommends registered mail or A-Post Plus: with both, tracking shows when the letter was delivered. According to the FOPH, a registered letter that is placed in the insurer’s post office box is only deemed delivered when the insurer collects it from the post office. This is another reason to send it early.

Some insurers also accept cancellations by email or in their customer portal. In that case, you only have proof of receipt if the insurer confirms it. The article Cancelling by email or registered mail? clarifies what applies to basic and supplementary insurance.

The legal rules in detail

Right to switch after the premium notification (Art. 7 para. 2 KVG). If your insurer notifies you of a new premium, you can switch with one month’s notice to the end of the month before the new premium applies. This applies regardless of whether the premium rises or falls, and regardless of deductible and model. According to the FOPH, it does not matter whether you have a special type of insurance.

Half-yearly date (Art. 7 para. 1 KVG). Without a premium notification, you can switch with three months’ notice to the end of June or the end of December. However, anyone with an optional deductible, a GP, HMO or telemedicine model or bonus insurance can only change insurer at the end of the calendar year under Art. 94 para. 2, Art. 97 para. 2 and Art. 100 para. 3 KVV. The 30 June date is therefore only open to insured persons in the standard model with the standard deductible.

Ends only with the new insurance (Art. 7 para. 5 KVG). The old insurance only ends once the new insurer has notified it that you are insured without interruption. If the new insurer notifies too late, you remain with the old insurer, and the new one must compensate you for the damage, in particular the difference in premium. If the old insurer prevents the switch, it also owes you compensation (Art. 7 para. 6 KVG).

Payment arrears (Art. 64a para. 6 KVG, Art. 105l KVV). As long as premiums, co-payments, default interest and debt enforcement costs for which you have received a reminder are outstanding, you cannot switch. If you cancel anyway, the insurer must inform you that the notice of cancellation only takes effect if everything for which a reminder was sent up to one month before the deadline is paid by the end of the notice period. For switching on 1 January, that means: reminder by 30 November, paid by 31 December. Amounts outstanding only for your children do not block your own switch.

Supplementary insurance is not affected (Art. 7 para. 7 and 8 KVG). Your current insurer may not force you to cancel your supplementary insurance with it as well when you switch basic health insurance, and it may not cancel it solely because of the switch.

What a switch can make: 2026 premiums

The benefits of basic health insurance are the same with every insurer, the premiums are not. How large the differences are is shown by the 2026 premiums in the municipality of Zurich (region 1), adults born in 1992, with accident cover, across all 128 offers with a CHF 300 deductible and all models (source: FOPH):

In 2026, the difference between the median and the cheapest offer was CHF 747.60 per year, and between the most expensive and the cheapest CHF 2,475.60. The cheapest offer is an HMO model with a restricted choice of doctor; whether such a model suits you is a separate question. The FOPH publishes the following year’s premiums at the end of September; only with them is a comparison for switching worthwhile.

Example: cancelling to the end of 2026

Example with fictitious people. Nina is 34 and lives in Zurich. She has the standard model with a CHF 300 deductible and wants to switch insurer for 2027.

If Nina had only taken the letter to the post office on 30.11.2026, it would have arrived on 01.12.2026 at the earliest and therefore too late. Because she has the standard model with a CHF 300 deductible, she would have had a second chance: notice of cancellation received by 31.03.2027, switch effective 01.07.2027. What you can do if the deadline has passed is explained in the article Notice of cancellation arrived too late.

Supplementary insurance: separately and with its own deadline

Supplementary insurance is governed by the ICA. Under Art. 35a para. 1 ICA, a contract can be cancelled to the end of the third or any subsequent year with three months’ notice, in writing or in another form that allows proof by text. The contract may provide for shorter terms. In supplementary health insurance, only the insured party to the contract has this ordinary right of cancellation, not the insurer (Art. 35a para. 4 ICA). The dates that apply to your product are set out in the general terms and conditions of insurance; according to the FOPH, some supplementary insurance policies have a minimum term of several years and six months’ notice.

In supplementary insurance, there is no obligation to accept. A new insurer may ask health questions and reject you or add a reservation. So only cancel supplementary insurance once the new insurer has accepted you in writing. The article Cancelling basic health insurance and keeping supplementary insurance shows how to switch basic health insurance and keep supplementary insurance. Your insurer’s general terms and conditions and information are decisive.

Special cases

• Premium change during the year. If the insurer exceptionally changes the premium during the year, Art. 7 para. 2 KVG applies again. The FOPH gives the example of an increase as of 1 August: notification by 31 May, notice of cancellation by 30 June to 31 July.
• Moving or changing jobs. If you have to leave the insurer because you move or change jobs, the insurance ends with the move or the start of the new job (Art. 7 para. 3 KVG). According to the FOPH, a higher premium because of a move, the change from the child premium to the adult premium or the loss of premium subsidies do not give an extraordinary right to cancel.
• Switching to a GP, HMO or telemedicine model. You can switch at any time from a model with free choice of physicians to a model with a restricted choice; you do not need to cancel for this (Art. 100 para. 2 KVV).
• Children. For children, you cancel as you do for yourself; the standard deductible is CHF 0. If there are arrears for a child for which a reminder has been sent, the child cannot switch (Art. 64a para. 6 KVG).
• Intermediaries and telephone sales. The FOPH advises always cancelling yourself: only then do you know for sure that the notice of cancellation arrives on time, and you have the proof in your hands. How to deal with unwanted calls is explained in the article Spam calls from health insurers.

Common mistakes

• Relying on the postmark. Only receipt by the insurer counts. A letter you post on 30 November arrives too late.
• Cancelling without registering. Cancellation alone does not end basic health insurance. Without notification from the new insurer, you remain insured with the old one.
• Overlooking reminders. Arrears for which you have received a reminder and which are still outstanding at the end of December make the notice of cancellation ineffective.
• Cancelling basic and supplementary insurance in one letter. Supplementary insurance is then often gone for good, because a new insurer may ask health questions.
• Cancelling to the end of June with an optional deductible or model. The 30 June date only applies to the standard model with the standard deductible.

Switching insurer shows the whole procedure from comparison to confirmation. The article Health insurance notice periods explains the deadlines at a glance, and you will find all other articles on switching in the Switching health insurer section. The 2026 premiums come from the same FOPH data as our premium calculator; we explain how we present them under How we calculate.