Swiss health insurance deductible (franchise): 300 or 2'500?

How cost sharing works

The deductible is the amount you pay yourself each calendar year before your insurer pays. Adults choose between the ordinary deductible of CHF 300 and the optional deductibles of 500, 1'000, 1'500, 2'000 and 2'500. Children have no ordinary deductible (CHF 0); levels up to CHF 600 can be chosen.

Once the deductible has been used up, you also pay a 10 percent co-payment, at most CHF 700 a year (children: CHF 350). In hospital, adults also pay a contribution of CHF 15 a day. Your maximum cost sharing is therefore CHF 1'000 a year with a deductible of 300, and CHF 3'200 with a deductible of 2'500 (excluding the hospital contribution in each case).

Important: the deductible does not change your benefits. It only shifts who pays how much. A low deductible means a higher premium and little personal risk; a high deductible means a lower premium and more personal risk.

The calculation behind “300 or 2'500”

Between the 300 and 2'500 deductibles lies CHF 2'200 of additional personal risk. The premium discount for it is limited by law: it may amount to at most 70 percent of the additional risk you take on, so with a deductible of 2'500 the saving is at most CHF 1'540 a year.

This leads to two clear cases: if you regularly have high treatment costs, you are practically always better off with CHF 300, because even the maximum discount never fully offsets the extra CHF 2'200. If, on the other hand, you hardly incur any medical costs, CHF 2'500 saves you the full premium difference year after year.

In purely financial terms, the middle deductibles only pay off within a narrow cost range; in practice, the decision usually comes down to 300 or 2'500. Do the concrete calculation: your annual premium with a 300 deductible minus your annual premium with a 2'500 deductible gives your possible saving. Compare this with the health costs you can realistically expect.

Rules of thumb for typical situations

As a guide for your decision in the autumn:

• Rarely at the doctor, no long-term medication, financial cushion available: with a 2'500 deductible you usually pay the least.
• Chronic illness, regular therapy or a treatment that is already planned: a 300 deductible.
• Few reserves: only choose 2'500 if, in the worst case, you could bear CHF 3'200 in one year. Otherwise the low deductible is the safe choice.
• Planning a pregnancy: from the 13th week of pregnancy until 8 weeks after the birth, no cost sharing applies. Costs before the 13th week count as normal, however (except maternity benefits such as check-ups), so a low deductible can still pay off for the year of the birth.
• Children: their own deductible from 0 to 600. As children's premiums are considerably lower, the saving potential of a higher deductible is correspondingly small.
• In every case: submit all invoices, even those below the deductible. This is the only way your deductible balance is kept correctly and your annual statement is accurate.

Deadlines and dates for 2027

You adjust your deductible and model with your own insurer as of 1 January each year; you do not need to switch insurer to do so. Your notification of a lower deductible must reach your insurer by Monday, 30 November 2026 (Art. 94 para. 2 KVV); a higher deductible is only possible as of 1 January (Art. 94 para. 1 KVV), and most insurers accept it until the end of December.

If you also want to switch insurer, your cancellation must reach your current insurer by Monday, 30 November 2026 (recommended: by registered mail). If you have the standard model with a 300 deductible, you can also cancel as of 1 July with three months' notice. When you switch during the year, the new insurer credits the deductible and co-payment already invoiced in the same calendar year (KVV Art. 103 para. 4). Keep the cost-sharing statement as proof.

On timing: the 2027 premiums have been published since 29 September 2026, so the saving for the new year can be calculated exactly. In the easyall calculator, you can work through different deductibles and models directly, already with the 2027 premiums.

Checklist: five steps to a decision

This is how to approach the autumn in a structured way:

For detailed questions about your situation, easy, our AI guide, helps you directly in the comparison.

• Look at your cost-sharing statements for the last two to three years: how high were your treatment costs really?
• Plan for what you can foresee in 2027: planned procedures, long-term medication, a new family member.
• Liquidity check: could you bear CHF 3'200 in the worst case? If not: a low deductible.
• Calculate concretely with the 2027 premiums: compare the premium difference between 300 and 2'500 with your expected costs, and compare model (family doctor, HMO, Telmed) and insurer at the same time, because basic insurance benefits are identical everywhere.
• Note the dates: your notification of a lower deductible and your cancellation must reach your current insurer by Monday, 30 November 2026; only a higher deductible can be requested until the end of December at most insurers.