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Question · Health

Can I cancel my supplementary health insurance whenever I like?

The law guarantees a minimum right of termination that the contract may widen but never narrow. It guarantees nothing whatsoever about what comes afterwards.

Published 14.09.2026

No. The date on which you can leave comes from your contract, not from your decision — and the law sets only a minimum below which that contract cannot go.

The minimum the law guarantees

The federal law on insurance contracts (VVG/LCA) grants an ordinary right of termination at the end of the third year, and then at the end of each following year, with three months' notice — even if the contract was concluded for a longer term. Life insurance is excluded.

This minimum works in one direction only. The parties may agree on earlier termination, and many supplementary policies offer an annual exit from the first year; what they cannot do is make termination harder than the law allows. This provision is among those that cannot be altered to the detriment of the policyholder.

An asymmetry that works in your favour

In insurance supplementing social health insurance, the ordinary right of termination belongs to the policyholder alone. The insurer does not have it. The same goes for the right to terminate after a partial loss has been paid out, which the insurer has elsewhere but not here.

In other words: you can leave at the dates provided for, but your insurer cannot drop you on the same terms.

A premium increase does not open the right people assume

For basic insurance, the KVG/LAMal grants an exit when a new premium is announced. Many people carry this reflex over to supplementary insurance: the VVG/LCA provides for nothing of the kind.

A right to terminate in the event of a price increase may exist — but because your general terms and conditions grant it, not because the law requires it. So you have to look for it in the contract, not assume it.

The gap the law does not close

For basic insurance, membership with the old insurer ends only once the new one has confirmed that it insures the person without interruption. The law itself prevents a gap in cover.

On the supplementary side, nothing of the sort exists. No provision makes the end of your contract conditional on another insurer's acceptance, and none lets you go back if the new application is refused. The usual caution — waiting for written acceptance before cancelling — is therefore not a rule of law: it is the practical consequence of there being no rule.

One last point is more reassuring: the law declares void any clause that would let the insurer stop periodic benefits already under way on the grounds that the contract is ending. Cancelling does not cut off a treatment already being paid for.

Sources and references

This information is general and for explanation only. It is neither legal advice nor individual insurance advice. Actual benefits depend on your contract, your personal situation and the conditions in force: check your policy terms, or contact the competent body or an adviser. How we write our content

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