Health insurance notice periods: 30 September, 30 November, 31 March

Three key dates, two laws

Two sets of rules apply in health insurance. Basic health insurance is governed by the Federal Health Insurance Act (KVG): its notice periods are the same for all health insurers and cannot be changed by contract. Supplementary insurance is governed by the Insurance Contract Act (ICA): the law sets a framework, and the exact dates are in the contract and the general terms and conditions.

This results in three dates you should know:

Strictly speaking, the notice period is the duration (one month, three months) and the cancellation date is the day on which the contract ends. The last day on which your notice of cancellation must arrive is often called the deadline for switching. In all cases, what counts is receipt by the health insurer, not the postmark.

The key dates for switching for 2027

The FOPH recommends sending by 15 November; in 2026, that is a Sunday. If you post the letter the week before, you have a buffer for delays. If a key date falls on a Saturday, Sunday or public holiday, according to the FOPH the notice of cancellation must arrive on the last working day before it. For switching for 2026, that was Friday, 28.11.2025, because 30 November 2025 was a Sunday.

The deadline calculator shows your own dates, including the start date and term of a supplementary insurance:

Basic health insurance: the deadlines in detail

30 November: cancellation after the premium notification

Your health insurer must notify you of the new premium approved by the FOPH at least two months before it applies and point out your right to switch insurer (Art. 7 para. 2 KVG). You can then cancel with one month’s notice to the end of the month before the new premium applies. Because the new premiums apply from 1 January, the deadline ends on 30 November.

According to the FOPH, it makes no difference whether your premium has gone up or whether you have an optional deductible, a GP, HMO or telemedicine model or bonus insurance. All that matters is that the health insurer has notified you of a new premium. The same applies if the premium falls. Which mistakes are common after a premium increase is shown in the article Premium increase checklist.

31 March: switching at the end of June

Without a premium notification, you can cancel with three months’ notice to the end of a calendar half-year (Art. 7 para. 1 KVG), i.e. to 30 June with receipt by 31 March. The Health Insurance Ordinance (KVV) restricts this: with an optional deductible (Art. 94 para. 2 KVV), bonus insurance (Art. 97 para. 2 KVV) or a model with restricted choice of doctor (Art. 100 para. 3 KVV), you can only switch insurer at the end of the calendar year. The mid-year date therefore only applies to standard insurance with a CHF 300 deductible (children CHF 0) and free choice of physicians. According to the FOPH, you may choose a model with restricted choice of doctor with the new health insurer from 1 July.

30 September: three months to the end of the year

Art. 7 para. 1 KVG also allows cancellation with three months’ notice to 31 December, i.e. with receipt by 30 September. In practice, you hardly need this date for basic health insurance: the health insurer notifies you of the new premium every year, and the later deadline of 30 November then applies. 30 September is important for supplementary insurance that runs by calendar year (see below).

During the year: only in three cases

• Premium change during the year. The FOPH gives the example of an increase as of 1 August: notification by 31 May, cancellation with receipt by 30 June to 31 July.
• Moving or changing jobs. If you have to leave your health insurer because you move your place of residence or change jobs, the insurance ends when you move or start the job (Art. 7 para. 3 KVG).
• The health insurer stops offering basic health insurance. The insurance then ends when the authorisation is withdrawn (Art. 7 para. 4 KVG).

According to the FOPH, a higher premium after a move, the change from the children’s to the adult premium or the loss of a premium subsidy do not give you an extraordinary right of cancellation.

Deductible, model and bonus: their own deadlines

Not every change is a switch of health insurer. Separate rules apply to the deductible and insurance model with your own health insurer, which the FOPH has summarised in an overview:

How to change your deductible and what to look out for is explained in the glossary term Changing your deductible. Which deductible pays off for which costs is shown by the deductible calculator; the calculation is not a recommendation for your situation.

Supplementary insurance: deadlines according to the contract

Art. 35a ICA applies to supplementary insurance. A contract can be cancelled at the end of the third or any subsequent year with three months’ notice, even if it was meant to run longer, in writing or in another form that allows proof by text (para. 1). The contract may allow cancellation before the end of the third year; the notice periods must then be the same for both parties (para. 2). In supplementary health insurance, only the insured contracting party has the right of ordinary cancellation, not the health insurer (para. 4).

What this means in practice depends on the contract:

According to the FOPH, some supplementary insurance policies have a minimum term of several years and a six-month notice period. There is no general statutory right of cancellation after a premium increase in supplementary insurance; whether and by when you can cancel in that case is set out in the general terms and conditions. You can cancel at any time for good cause, if continuing the contract can no longer reasonably be expected of you in good faith (Art. 35b ICA). The rules are explained in detail in the glossary term Cancelling supplementary insurance. The general terms and conditions and the information from your health insurer prevail.

If invoices are unpaid: the deadline behind the deadline

As long as premiums, co-payments, default interest or debt enforcement costs for which you received a reminder are unpaid, you cannot switch insurer (Art. 64a para. 6 KVG). If you cancel anyway, the cancellation only takes effect if everything for which you received a reminder up to one month before the end of the notice period has been paid by the end of the notice period (Art. 105l para. 2 KVV).

According to the FOPH, arrears for which no reminder has been sent do not block the switch. Unpaid amounts only for your children do not stop you from switching, but they do stop the child.

What a missed deadline costs: premiums 2026

If you miss 30 November, you stay with your health insurer for another year. What that can amount to is shown by the 2026 premiums in the municipality of Bern (region 1), adults born in 1992, with accident cover, CHF 300 deductible, across all 126 offers and models (source: FOPH):

The cheapest offer is a telemedicine model; switching models brings its own rules. The FOPH publishes next year’s premiums at the end of September. You can compare in the premium calculator.

Example: two insured persons, two dates

Example with fictitious people. Selin, 41, has the telemedicine model with a CHF 2,500 deductible and supplementary hospital insurance whose insurance year corresponds to the calendar year and which, according to the general terms and conditions, can be cancelled with three months’ notice. Her brother Luca, 38, has the standard model with a CHF 300 deductible and no supplementary insurance.

What you can still do after missing a deadline is set out in the article Notice of cancellation arrived too late.

Common mistakes

• Thinking the postmark counts. The deadline is only met if the notice of cancellation is with the health insurer during normal business hours on the last day. According to the FOPH, a registered item in the health insurer’s PO box is only deemed delivered when it is collected.
• Wanting to use 31 March with a model or optional deductible. The mid-year date only applies to the standard model with the standard deductible.
• Cancelling supplementary insurance with the basic health insurance deadline. 30 November only applies to basic health insurance. For supplementary insurance, the date is often earlier, and it is set out in the general terms and conditions.
• Thinking a higher deductible needs 30 November. According to the FOPH, you switch to a higher deductible with notification by 31 December; only a lower deductible requires 30 November.
• Ignoring reminders. Arrears for which you received a reminder that are still unpaid on 31 December make the cancellation ineffective.

How to write and send your notice of cancellation is shown in the article Cancelling health insurance. How to switch only your basic health insurance and keep your supplementary insurance is explained in Cancelling basic health insurance. The cancellation letter generator creates a finished letter, and Switching health insurer shows the whole procedure. You will find all articles on the topic in the Switching health insurer section; how our deadline calculator determines the dates is explained under How we calculate.