Swiss health insurance premiums expected to rise by 4% in 2026

Health premiums: Comparis forecasts an average increase of 4% in 2026 Keystone-SDA

Price comparison website Comparis expects health insurance premiums to rise by 4% next year. This increase should be seen against an expected rise in healthcare costs of 3.7%.

The premium increase for 2026 “would be a step towards true costs after the three premium shocks of 6.6% in 2023, 8.7% in 2024 and 6% in 2025,” according to Felix Schneuwly, health insurance expert at Comparis, quoted in a press release published on Thursday.

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In his view, without the premium increases kept artificially low between 2018 and 2022 by reductions in reserves imposed by political decision-makers, premiums would already have risen by almost 3% a year between 2018 and 2025.

Health insurers now have sufficient reserves again. “Let’s hope that the volatility in premiums caused by policymakers is now coming to an end, and that health insurers can use their reserves in such a way that every fluctuation in costs does not systematically lead to a fluctuation in premiums,” continued Schneuwly.

Of course, rising healthcare costs will influence premiums. Comparis and the KOF economic research centre are forecasting a rise of 4.4% in 2024, 3.7% this year and 3.4% next year.

Three causes

Schneuwly notes that the increase in the share of costs that determines premiums is higher each time, because the range of basic insurance services is becoming ever wider. The most recent example is weight loss injections.

The second reason given by Comparis is that many hospitals have been running deficits in recent years and charging higher rates for outpatient and inpatient services. Finally, the implementation of the healthcare initiative will result in costs, according to Comparis.

The shortage of qualified staff will lead to a “long-awaited structural restructuring” in the hospital sector. According to Schneuwly, the majority of cantons have so far prevented this by covering deficits.

Adapted from French by DeepL/ac

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