Unemployed: what applies to your health insurance

Three insurances, three different sets of rules

When you lose your job, three insurances are affected, and each reacts differently. Basic health insurance under the Federal Health Insurance Act (KVG) depends on your residence in Switzerland (Art. 3 para. 1 KVG), not on your work. Accident insurance under the Federal Act on Accident Insurance (UVG) depends on your employment or on your entitlement to unemployment benefit. Daily sickness allowance is usually a collective insurance taken out by your employer and ends when you leave.

The two most common problems are a gap in accident cover and a premium that is hard to pay without an income. Both can be avoided with a few steps. The glossary summarises what health insurance during unemployment generally looks like; this article covers how to proceed.

Step by step: what you do after losing your job

1. Check the accident cover on your policy. If it says “without accident cover”, you were insured against accidents through your employer. This applies if you worked for that employer at least eight hours a week (Art. 13 para. 1 UVV).
2. Ask your employer about extended cover by agreement. Before the extended cover period ends, you can extend your employer’s accident insurance by special agreement for up to six months (Art. 3 para. 3 UVG). This mainly makes sense if you do not receive unemployment benefit.
3. Register with the regional employment centre (RAV) and the unemployment insurance fund. As soon as you meet the conditions for entitlement, you are insured against accidents with Suva (Art. 3 para. 1 UVG).
4. Inform your health insurer if no UVG cover follows. Your employer and the unemployment insurance must notify you of this in writing. After that, you have one month to inform your insurer (Art. 11 para. 2 KVV).
5. Clarify daily sickness allowance. When you leave, ask about transferring to individual daily allowance insurance and note the deadline.
6. Apply for a premium subsidy. Ask the canton for a calculation based on your current income. You can find the office and deadlines under Premium subsidy.
7. Check your premium. Compare deductible, model and insurer in the premium calculator and plan a switch for the next date.

The rules in detail

Basic health insurance: nothing changes

Insurer, deductible, model and benefits stay the same. You continue to pay the premium yourself; the unemployment insurance fund does not cover it. You cannot cancel basic health insurance as long as you live in Switzerland: it is compulsory (Art. 3 para. 1 KVG). If you do not pay premiums when due, the insurer must start debt enforcement proceedings against you after a reminder and a grace period of 30 days (Art. 64a para. 1 and 2 KVG). As long as arrears are outstanding, you cannot switch insurer (Art. 64a para. 6 KVG).

Accident cover: extended cover, Suva or health insurer

Your employer’s accident insurance ends on the 31st day after the day on which your entitlement to at least half your salary stops (Art. 3 para. 2 UVG). These 31 days are called extended cover. After that, there are two routes:

• With entitlement to unemployment benefit: People who meet the conditions for entitlement under Art. 8 AVIG or receive benefit are compulsorily insured under the UVG (Art. 1a para. 1 let. b UVG), namely with Suva (Art. 66 para. 3bis UVG). Cover starts on the day you first meet the conditions (Art. 3 para. 1 UVG). The unemployment insurance fund deducts at most two thirds of the premium for non-work-related accidents from your benefit and pays the last third itself (Art. 22a para. 4 of the Unemployment Insurance Act, AVIG).
• Without entitlement: After the extended cover period, you are no longer insured under the UVG. Basic health insurance then covers accidents by law (Art. 8 para. 2 KVG), with deductible and retention fee as for illness.

Suva cover ends on the 31st day after the day on which you last met the conditions or received benefit (Art. 3 para. 2 UVG). If you exhaust your entitlement and do not start a job, the unemployment insurance must notify you in writing that you must report this to your health insurer (Art. 10 para. 1 KVG).

Duty to report and back payment

The accident cover with your health insurer can be suspended as long as you are fully covered under the UVG; the premium is then lower (Art. 8 para. 1 KVG). The reduction is a maximum of 7 % (Art. 91a para. 4 KVV). If UVG cover ends, you inform your insurer within one month of being notified by your employer or the unemployment insurance (Art. 11 para. 2 KVV). If you fail to report it, the insurer can claim the premium share for accident cover plus default interest, retroactively to the end of UVG cover (Art. 10 para. 2 KVG). You are covered nonetheless: the insurer pays for accidents from the day UVG cover stops.

Illness during unemployment

Basic health insurance pays the treatment costs. For replacement of income: if you are temporarily unable to work because of illness, accident or pregnancy, unemployment insurance pays the full daily allowance up to the 30th day after the start of incapacity for work at most, and a maximum of 44 daily allowances within the framework period (Art. 28 para. 1 AVIG). Daily allowances from health or accident insurance that replace earnings are deducted from unemployment benefit (Art. 28 para. 2 AVIG).

For longer illnesses, you need daily allowance insurance. If you were insured through your employer’s collective insurance under the KVG, you have a right of transfer to individual insurance, without new reservations, and must exercise it within three months of the written notification (Art. 71 KVG). If the collective daily allowance insurance was taken out under the Insurance Contract Act (ICA), the general terms and conditions govern whether and until when you can transfer. What counts are the general terms and conditions and the information from the insurer.

Premium subsidy based on current income

When assessing entitlement, the cantons must take into account the most recent income and family circumstances, in particular at your request (Art. 65 para. 3 KVG). If your canton calculates with an older tax assessment, an application based on your current income can therefore pay off. Who is entitled and how high the premium subsidy is, each canton decides itself.

Figures: what accident cover costs

The table shows the monthly premiums for basic health insurance in 2026 in the municipality of Bern (region 1) for an adult born in 1988, with and without accident cover; lowest offer, median and highest offer of all insurers and models. Source FOPH, health insurance premiums 2026.

Deductible	Accident	Lowest offer	Median	Highest offer
CHF 300	without	CHF 507.70	CHF 569.10	CHF 705.80
CHF 300	with	CHF 545.90	CHF 609.30	CHF 758.90
CHF 2,500	without	CHF 388.30	CHF 450.30	CHF 586.80
CHF 2,500	with	CHF 417.50	CHF 482.70	CHF 630.90

For the lowest offer with a CHF 300 deductible, which in both variants is the same telemedicine model of the same insurer, including accident cover costs CHF 38.20 a month. The medians come from different insurers and models; you can see your insurer’s surcharge on your policy. The FOPH publishes next year’s premiums at the end of September; until they are released, we calculate with the 2026 premiums.

Sample calculation: losing a job in Bern

Example with fictitious people. Sandra, 38, lives in Bern and has the telemedicine model with the lowest offer from the table with her insurer, CHF 300 deductible, without accident cover. Her entitlement to salary ends on 30.04.2026. Her employer’s extended cover runs until 31.05.2026.

Period	Accidents covered by	What Sandra must do
until 31.05.2026	employer’s accident insurance (extended cover)	nothing
from the day she meets the conditions for unemployment insurance	Suva	nothing, accident cover with her health insurer stays excluded
if she does not claim unemployment benefit, from 01.06.2026	health insurer, with deductible and retention fee	inform the insurer within one month, include accident cover

If Sandra claims unemployment benefit, she pays at most two thirds of the Suva premium through the deduction from her daily allowance, and her health insurance premium stays at CHF 507.70. Whether extended cover by agreement or including accident cover is better value depends on the premiums and the benefits: UVG insurance pays without deductible and retention fee.

Special cases

Exhausting your entitlement and a new job

If your entitlement to unemployment benefit ends without you starting a job, Suva cover continues until the 31st day after your last benefit payment (Art. 3 para. 2 UVG). After that, your health insurer covers accidents, and you inform it within one month of being notified by the unemployment insurance. If you start a new job with at least eight hours a week, you are insured through your employer again and can suspend accident cover with your health insurer in writing, at the earliest from the first day of the following month (Art. 11 para. 1 KVV). How including and excluding cover works is explained in the article Excluding accident cover.

Adjusting deductible and model

With less income, a different deductible or a different model can lower your premium. You can choose a higher deductible from 1 January; for a lower deductible or a switch of insurer, your notice must reach the insurer by the last working day in November; in 2026, that is Monday, 30.11.2026. A high deductible, however, means you pay more yourself if you fall ill. Where the break-even point lies, you can work out in the deductible calculator; the deadline calculator shows the dates.

Supplementary insurance

Supplementary insurance continues as before, including the premium. If you cancel it to save money, an insurer may later turn you down after health questions. Only you as the policyholder have the ordinary right to cancel, not the insurer (Art. 35a para. 4 ICA); the notice periods are in the general terms and conditions. What counts are the general terms and conditions and the information from the insurer.

If you cannot pay the premiums

If you fall behind with your premiums, contact your insurer and your municipality’s social advice service early. Unpaid premiums lead to reminders and debt enforcement (Art. 64a KVG) and block a switch of insurer until everything has been paid.

Common mistakes

• Forgetting to inform the health insurer. If UVG cover ends with no follow-on cover, the insurer can claim the premium for accident cover plus interest.
• Paying twice for accidents. As long as you are entitled to unemployment benefit, you are insured with Suva; including accident cover with your health insurer is then not necessary.
• Wanting to cancel basic health insurance. It is compulsory and does not depend on work.
• Not having your premium subsidy recalculated. If your canton uses older tax data, ask for a recalculation; on request, it must take the most recent circumstances into account.
• Missing the transfer deadline for daily sickness allowance. After that, you must take out new insurance, possibly with health questions for insurance under the ICA.

Why premiums rise every year and what that means for your budget is explained in the article Why are premiums rising?. What the insurer pays for medicines is covered in the article Medicines and generics. You can compare insurers in the health insurer profiles, and you can find all other articles in the topic Understanding basic insurance.