Your first own health insurance: what you need to know from 18

What changes with your health insurance at 18 and at 19

At 18 you do not need to take out new health insurance. Your basic health insurance continues with your current insurer, under the same policy. Two things do change, however, at two different times: on your 18th birthday you become liable for the premium yourself. At the turn of the year into the year in which you turn 19, you move into the young adults age group, and then your premium and deductible go up.

The age group depends on your year of birth: anyone under 19 on 31 December of the year counts as a child, and anyone aged 19 to 25 at that point as a young adult (Art. 16 para. 5 and Art. 16a of the Federal Health Insurance Act, KVG). If you turn 18 in March 2026, you owe the premium yourself from April, but still pay the children’s premium until the end of 2026. What happens when you jump to 26 is explained in the article Premium at 19 and 26.

Step by step: your first own health insurance

1. Read the policy. Ask your parents for the current policy or have the insurer send it to you. It shows the insurer, insurance model, deductible, accident cover and any supplementary insurance.
2. Sort out the billing address and payment. From the month after your 18th birthday, premium invoices and reminders are sent to you. Agree with your parents who pays from when, and give the insurer the right address.
3. Check the new premiums in October. The insurer must notify you of the premium for the next year at least two months in advance (Art. 7 para. 2 KVG). In the year you turn 18, this letter shows the young adult premium for the first time.
4. Compare offers. The benefits of basic health insurance are the same with every insurer; the premiums are not. Compare using your municipality and year of birth in the premium calculator.
5. Choose a deductible and model. At 19, the children’s deductible no longer applies. Work out which deductible suits your costs, and check whether a GP, HMO or telemedicine model is an option for you.
6. Check your accident cover. If you work at least 8 hours a week for one employer, you are insured against accidents there and can suspend your health insurer’s accident cover.
7. Cancel in good time if you switch. Your notice of cancellation must reach your old insurer by 30 November; in 2026 that is a Monday. Send it by 15 November by registered mail or A-Post Plus. The cancellation letter gives you a template.
8. Check for a premium subsidy. If you are in education and have a lower or middle income, your canton must reduce your premium by at least 50 % (Art. 65 para. 1bis KVG).

The legal rules from 18 in detail

Who owes the premium

Until the end of the month in which a child comes of age, only the parents owe the premiums for that child (Art. 61a para. 1 KVG). The same applies to the deductible and retention fee (Art. 64 para. 1bis KVG). The child cannot be subjected to debt enforcement for these amounts even after their 18th birthday; any such debt enforcement is void. From the following month, you are liable yourself. If you do not pay, the insurer sends the reminder to you, not to your parents.

How the costs are divided within the family is governed by family law, not by the KVG. Parents must provide for the maintenance of an adult child until an appropriate first education can normally be completed, as far as this can reasonably be expected of them (Art. 277 para. 2 of the Swiss Civil Code, CC). Whether this includes the health insurance premium in an individual case is a matter between you and your parents.

Switching despite unpaid bills from childhood

Anyone who owes premiums normally cannot switch insurer until everything has been paid (Art. 64a para. 6 KVG). There is an exception for young adults: you may switch at the end of the year even if premiums, co-payments or debt enforcement costs from the time you were a minor are unpaid (Art. 64a para. 7bis KVG). For your own arrears from your 18th birthday, however, the block applies as it does to everyone.

Free choice of insurer

You choose your insurer yourself; it does not have to be your parents’ insurer. Every insurer must accept you for basic health insurance, without health questions (Art. 5 let. i of the Health Insurance Supervision Act, KVAG). You can switch at the end of the year if your notice of cancellation arrives by 30 November (Art. 7 para. 2 KVG) and, with the standard deductible in the standard model, also at the end of June if it arrives by 31 March (Art. 7 para. 1 KVG). The deadline calculator works out all the dates. You can find key figures and contact options for the insurers in the health insurer profiles.

What your first own health insurance costs

Children and young adults pay lower premiums than adults, and children less than young adults (Art. 61 para. 3 KVG). The jump from the children’s premium to the young adult premium is therefore the biggest you will experience with health insurance. What counts is the premium region of where you live (Art. 61 para. 2 KVG). Premiums 2026, municipality of Bern (region 1), with accident cover; source FOPH:

Age group and deductible	lowest	median	highest
child (born 2008), deductible CHF 0	CHF 125.00	CHF 145.90	CHF 189.80
young adult (born 2007), deductible CHF 300	CHF 391.85	CHF 461.80	CHF 593.00
young adult (born 2007), deductible CHF 2,500	CHF 263.55	CHF 335.60	CHF 468.80

At the median, a young adult with a CHF 300 deductible pays more than three times the children’s premium with a CHF 0 deductible. Between the lowest and the highest offer with a CHF 300 deductible, there is a difference of CHF 201.15 a month, or CHF 2,413.80 a year, for the same statutory benefits. In this table, the lowest offers belong to GP or telemedicine models. The FOPH publishes next year’s premiums at the end of September; until they are released, we calculate with the 2026 premiums.

Sample calculation: CHF 300 or CHF 2,500 deductible?

Example with fictitious people. Nina, born in 2007, lives in Bern and is still at upper secondary school. She compares the median offers from the table above, both with accident cover.

You cannot know for certain in advance whether your costs will be above or below this threshold. The calculation only shows where the break-even point lies; it is not a recommendation. Think about accidents too: without a job of at least 8 hours a week, a sports accident is covered by your health insurer and is subject to the deductible and retention fee (Art. 28 KVG). You can choose a higher deductible with effect from 1 January each year; you can only return to a lower one at the end of the year if your notice arrives by 30 November (Art. 94 KVV). You can do the maths with the premiums for your municipality in the deductible calculator.

Accident cover, model and supplementary insurance at 18

Keeping or suspending accident cover

Basic health insurance pays the same benefits for accidents as for illness (Art. 28 KVG). You may only suspend accident cover if you are fully insured against accidents under the Accident Insurance Act (Art. 8 para. 1 KVG). This is the case if you work at least 8 hours a week for one employer; you are then also insured against accidents in your free time (Art. 13 para. 1 UVV). The premium falls by the accident share, by at most 7 % (Art. 91a para. 4 KVV). If you are still at school or studying and only work a few hours on the side, you need your health insurer’s accident cover. How this works during an apprenticeship is explained in the article Apprenticeship and first job; you can prepare the request with the tool Suspend accident cover.

Model: free choice of physicians or GP, HMO, telemedicine

Insurers may lower the premium if you commit to calling or visiting a specific point of contact first (Art. 41 para. 4 and Art. 62 para. 1 KVG). Depending on the insurer, these special types of insurance are called GP, HMO or telemedicine models. The benefits are the same, but you must follow the rules, otherwise the insurer may reduce benefits. The model finder helps you work out which rules suit your everyday life, for example if you move away for your education.

Supplementary insurance from your childhood

Supplementary insurance policies are private contracts under the Insurance Contract Act (ICA). Often your parents are the policyholders there, even if you are the insured person. In supplementary insurance, only the policyholder may cancel the contract with ordinary notice (Art. 35a para. 4 ICA). Whether the contract passes to you at 18, whether the premium changes at 19 and which notice periods apply are set out in your insurer’s general terms and conditions. If you cancel a supplementary insurance policy, a new insurer can ask you health questions later and turn you down. What counts are the general terms and conditions and the information from your insurer.

Special cases at 18 and 19

• Apprenticeship: Apprentices are compulsorily insured under the UVG through the company training them (Art. 1a para. 1 let. a UVG). From 8 hours a week, this also covers accidents in their free time, and the health insurer’s accident cover can be suspended.
• Studies: If you move to another city to study, you often keep your residence with your parents. Which premium region then applies and what relief there is is explained in the article Studies and health insurance.
• Hospital stay: Like children, young adults in education pay no hospital contribution of CHF 15 per day (Art. 104 para. 2 KVV).
• Year abroad: If your residence stays in Switzerland, you remain insured here. More on this in the article Year abroad and language stay.
• Premium subsidy: Entitlement depends on the canton. Some cantons assess young adults in education together with their parents’ income (GDK overview 2026). You can find the rules of your canton under Premium subsidy.

Common mistakes

• Ignoring the premium invoice. From the month after your 18th birthday, the insurer sends reminders to you and initiates debt enforcement against you. Unpaid premiums from this period block a switch of insurer (Art. 64a para. 6 KVG).
• Keeping the deductible from your childhood. At 19, the children’s deductibles no longer exist. Check in the autumn which deductible will be on your policy from 1 January.
• Dropping accident cover too early. You may only suspend it with full UVG cover. If your employment ends, you must report this to the insurer within one month (Art. 11 para. 2 KVV).
• Sending the notice of cancellation too late. What counts is that it reaches the insurer by 30 November, not the postmark.
• Cancelling supplementary insurance without checking. If you want one again later, you have to answer health questions.

You can find all articles for this stage of life in the topic area Young adults. We explain how we present premiums under How we calculate.