Swiss Health Insurance: A Guide to Claims-Free Discounts

Discounts for not making any claims in an insurance year are available for both mandatory health insurance and complementary insurance. In this guide, moneyland.ch answers the most important questions about no-claims discounts for Swiss health insurance.

Are there any claims-free discounts for Swiss mandatory health insurance?

Swiss law allows health insurance providers to offer a bonus-malus program for mandatory health insurance. However, this is only possible for policies that use the standard model with the lowest deductible (300 francs). Additionally, you must commit to a contract term longer than one year.

Insurance providers are not required to use the bonus-malus model, and today only a handful of insurers still offer it. You can find insurance providers that give you this option by selecting the bonus insurance filter in the mandatory health insurance comparison.

The conditions for the bonus model of mandatory health insurance are dictated by law, and are identical for all health insurance providers.

Table 1: Bonus-malus model for mandatory health insurance

If you make a claim on your insurance, you are moved up one tier for the next insurance year.

Is using the bonus-malus model for mandatory health insurance worth it?

If you would not claim on your health insurance anyway, then using a managed care model with the highest deductible usually works out cheaper.

Another factor to consider is that mandatory health insurance premiums can change every year. Tying yourself into a long-term contract makes it impossible to change to a cheaper offer if your insurance provider drastically raises your premiums at the start of a new year.

Are there any claims-free discounts for supplemental health insurance?

Only a few Swiss health insurance providers offer no-claims benefits for voluntary, supplemental health insurance. When you do not claim on your insurance at all over the course of an insurance year, you are rewarded with a discount or with extra benefits in the following year.

Table 2: Bonus-malus and claims-free reward programs for Swiss supplemental health insurance

Offers and programs are subject to change. moneyland.ch makes no claim regarding the completeness of this list.

Example: A 44-year old woman living in Zurich would pay just over 1146 francs per year for Visana’s supplemental Basic package with outpatient insurance and Flex 2/4 hospital insurance (Date: October 2024). Visana’s bonus-malus reward program would lower the annual cost to around 925 francs after a claims-free year, saving her 221 francs.

Is it worth getting supplemental health insurance specifically for claims-free discounts?

The most important thing to consider when getting supplemental outpatient insurance or hospital insurance is which insurance coverage and benefits you need and want. Once you have decided which coverage you need, the next step is to compare the premiums for offers that include that coverage.

If the cheapest offer that matches your needs also includes bonus-malus or claims-free discounts, that is an extra benefit. But it is better not to account for these discounts in cost calculations. There is no way to know in advance whether or not you will have to claim on your insurance.

Can I save money by remaining claims-free in order to pay lower premiums?

Not necessarily. Many supplemental outpatient insurance offers include yearly benefits for things like alternative medicine, glasses and contact lenses, gym memberships, dentists and orthodontics, and yoga, among others. If you need these benefits, then claiming them can often save you more, compared to not making any claims in order to get the claims-free discount. However, some insurance providers do not count benefits for preventative measures as insurance claims, for the purpose of claims-free discounts.

On the other hand, bonus-malus systems and claims-free discounts can save you money if you only use supplemental health insurance to insure against risks that are unlikely to occur over many years. That could be the case, for example, if you use supplemental hospital insurance or outpatient insurance to extend your mandatory health insurance coverage for hospital stays, medical emergencies abroad, and emergency medical transportation.

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