It’s time again to compare premiums of the compulsory health insurance plans to see if we’ll change insurance companies or not this year to maximize our frugal spending.
As usual, I used the best health insurance comparison tool in Switzerland on the official website of the Swiss Confederation “Priminfo” (and not Comparis or anything else that puts sponsored items in between results that you can quickly get screwed over).
In a nutshell: how do I change my compulsory health insurance in Switzerland?
Simply follow these four steps to conclude your new compulsory health insurance policy, and terminate your current KVG/LAMal insurance:
- Check how much you’re currently paying in health insurance premiums
- Compare on priminfo which is the best health insurer for your personal data
- Subscribe to the new insurer (if you can find a cheaper one)
N.B. normally, the new insurer will ask you what your current health insurance is, so that they can send them a confirmation of affiliation, and so that your cancellation request can be accepted (see next point). - Send a cancellation letter (see template below) to cancel your current health insurance by registered mail
N.B. wait until you’ve received the confirmation email from your new insurer (you usually receive an application confirmation email a few minutes after registering online with the new insurer).
Reminder health insurance choice of the MP family in 2024
Readers who have been following the blog for a long time know that we have been with Assura for several years now.
Then, in 2022, we switched to KPT, which had become the cheapest insurance for 2023.
And we switched again in 2024 to Visana (for us adults). And the children went to CSS.
This was the most frugal option we could find with our search criteria, namely:
- Mr MP and Mrs MP: deductible of CHF 2'500, family doctor model (to be able to choose our family doctor and not have him imposed on us)
- Children MP: deductible of CHF 0, family doctor model also
Since the beginning of 2024, we paid the following monthly health insurance premiums with Visana and CSS:
- Mr MP: CHF 337.55
- Mrs MP: CHF 337.55
- Kid MP 1: CHF 108.95
- Kid MP 2: CHF 108.95
- Total health insurance in 2024: CHF 893.00/month
Using health insurance comparison tool priminfo
So I went to enter my info and that of Mrs. MP and the kids on the official federal “Priminfo” website to compare health insurance premiums:
Verdict health insurance premiums 2025 MP family
The results of this year’s comparison are obvious:
- 👎 Assura Qualimed: it could have done the job. In fact, we almost took it. The one restriction we don’t really like is having to go through BetterDoc for all specialist referrals (cardiology, cardiac and vascular surgery, orthopedics, hand surgery, neurosurgery, gastroenterology, visceral surgery, urology), rather than being advised by our family doctor who has known us all our lives.
- ✅ Assura PharMed: we’re back to the good old Assura basic insurance we’ve had for many years. PharMed gives us the free choice of our family doctor, but restricts our choice of pharmacies (we have to go through Assura’s partner pharmacies, and we have one near us, so, all good).
Assura (PharMed) becomes the most frugal insurance for Mrs MP and myself in 2025.
As far as the children are concerned, they will stay with CSS because their pediatrician is not in Helsana’s R1 or R2 levels. And Assura Qualimed poses the same problem as for us (see above) when they need to see a specialist.
That’s what we’re talking about in numbers, monthly:
- Visana + CSS MP family 2024: CHF 893.00
- Assura + CSS MP family 2025: CHF 938.80
- Difference = CHF 45 more to pay each month!
It’s less crazy than the 25% between 2023 and 2024, but we’re still talking about a 5% increase 💸
But if we’d stayed with Visana for us adults, we’d have paid CHF 63.80 more per month!
So, by switching health insurance in 2025, we’re talking about annual savings of CHF 765.60 (= 63.80 x 12).
And over 10 years, by investing this amount in the stock market via my favorite broker Interactive Brokers, that will make us CHF 11 ‘332 more in our pocket!!!
All this for the small effort of sending a registered letter to cancel my Visana health insurance, and filling in a small form to take out our health insurance with Assura for 2025!
All that for about 1h15 of work, so we got a good return in the end!
Sample letter to cancel KVG/LAMal health insurance
If you also want to cancel your KVG/LAMal health insurance (valid for all health insurance companies), here is a standard insurance letter that you just have to fill in, sign and send by registered mail to your health insurance before 30.11.2024:
Download sample cancellation letter for health insurance (in French) >
Download sample cancellation letter for health insurance (in German) >
I must insist that you send this letter on time, otherwise your request to cancel your basic insurance will not be considered…
Conclusion
It feels weird to go through all these health insurance changes again… I’m borderline happy because I feel like I’m back in 2013 when I was optimizing all my contracts to become the Mustachian that I am today :)
And a little note about KPT then Visana: even though I’ve cancelled with them, I can confirm that it’s only because of the health insurance premium, because it’s always gone well and I’ve always been very satisfied.
And you, are you cancelling your KVG/LAMal health insurance this year? If so, with whom? With the family doctor insurance model or another? And also, do you have any opinion on Assura, Visana or CSS?
FAQ
Cancellation of supplementary insurance
You can normally cancel your supplementary health insurance at the end of each year, giving 3 months’ notice (i.e. by September 30 of each year at the latest).
What is the Federal Health Insurance Act?
It’s the law called “KVG” in German and “LAMal” in French. It regulates the benefits of the compulsory health insurance.
