How to save on your health insurance premiums
Even without a premium reduction from the canton: Sympany offers you many ways to keep your own premiums as low as possible.
Read morePremium reduction
Anyone living or working in Switzerland must, by law, have health insurance. The insurance is financed by premiums. The cantons are responsible for ensuring that policyholders with limited financial means receive support with paying their health insurance premiums.
Find out here how the premium reduction is paid and how to obtain a premium reduction. There is also some background information about the premium reduction.
How is the premium reduction paid?
The individual premium reduction is paid via health insurance policies. In other words, the cantons transfer the money to the health insurers. The health insurers then deduct the premium reduction from the premium. The reduction cannot be shown on the policy, but it is listed on the premium invoice.
Sympany cannot apply the premium reduction to the invoice until it has received the relevant notification from the canton. Health insurers cannot independently register premium reductions; this is the preserve of the cantons. A period of up two months may elapse between the canton notifying you of the decision and us receiving notification.
Avoid a reminder – pay your premium invoice
Please pay your premium invoice on time, even if the premium reduction is not yet shown on it. This ensures you will not receive a reminder from Sympany. As soon as your canton of residence has informed us of the premium reduction, we will send you a corrected invoice with a credit for the excess premium payments.
If the premium reduction has not been deducted from your premium invoice two months after you receive the decision, please get in touch with the appropriate cantonal office (in German) >
Who is eligible for a premium reduction?
The level of income at which policyholders are entitled to support varies from canton to canton. Usually, the cantonal administration informs eligible people directly, based on their tax assessment. The key criteria are income, assets and number of children.
In some cantons, such as Basel-Stadt, there is an obligation to apply for the premium reduction. If this is the case, policyholders are only entitled to the reduction if they independently apply for it each year. To find out whether you are eligible for financial support, please enquire at the relevant office for your canton of residence.
Why the need for a premium reduction?
Premiums for basic insurance have been rising for years. The reasons for this are explained here. This is placing financial strain on more and more people – and families in particular. To make things easier for the people affected, in 1996 the individual premium reduction was introduced.