BFS data: Health costs rose faster than gross premiums
Between 2019 and 2024, monthly gross costs per insured person rose by around 18.5 percent, gross premiums by 13.6 percent. What the new time series explains – and what it does not.
The costs of mandatory health care insurance rose more sharply between 2019 and 2024 than gross premiums per insured person. That is shown by an evaluation of the BFS table published on 26 October 2026. In the Swiss average, monthly gross costs rose from 326.84 to 387.30 francs, an increase of around 18.5 percent. The gross premium rose from 315.29 to 358.13 francs, by 13.6 percent.
In the dataset, the calculation compares the total of all cantons, age groups, sexes and nationalities. It shows a development up to 2024, not a current quote for a family. This delimitation matters: the cost of a treatment, invoices to insured persons and public relief are different flows of money.
Four amounts, four different statements
In the table, gross costs cover the recorded treatment costs before deduction of cost-sharing. For 2024, gross costs of 387.30 francs per person and month stand alongside 52.31 francs of cost-sharing and 334.99 francs of net costs. Rounding differences are possible. The annual deductible and the co-payment are therefore not the same as the premium.
On the financing side, the table reports a gross premium of 358.13 francs. After deduction of the recorded subsidies, the net premium is 300.51 francs. The average difference is 57.62 francs. The BFS explicitly defines subsidies as the difference between gross and net premiums.
It does not follow that every person receives this contribution every month. An average spreads the amounts arithmetically across all insured persons, including people without a premium reduction. For one's own household budget, the actual premium invoice and the individual reduction decision are needed. Self-paid treatment costs may come on top.
More insured persons enlarge the total bill
In the series, nationwide gross costs rose from 33.11 billion francs in 2019 to 41.35 billion in 2024. That corresponds to around 24.9 percent. The increase is higher than the 18.5 percent per capita because the recorded number of insured persons grew at the same time.
The BFS weights insured persons by the duration of their insurance coverage. Anyone insured for half a year counts as half a person. For 2019 this yields a weighted stock of around 8.44 million, for 2024 of 8.90 million. It would therefore be wrong to present these values as a simple snapshot count of the resident population.
The trajectory also deserves attention. The average monthly gross premium stayed at roughly 315 francs from 2019 to 2022. It then rose to 331.61 francs in 2023 and 358.13 francs in 2024. Costs did not move in the same rhythm year after year. Comparing only the end points conceals this shift over time.
From 2023 to 2024, the gross premium per month rose by 26.52 francs. That describes the development of the average, not necessarily the change in every individual policy.
No profit calculation for health insurers
No profit of individual insurers can be calculated from the difference between the average gross premium and net costs. Such a calculation would have to take into account administrative expenses, provisions, investment results and the respective accounting bases, among other things. The new table is a structured care and premium statistic, not a complete income statement for each insurer.
When comparing with other publications, the reference year must also be checked. The Federal Office of Public Health (BAG) explicitly points out that its individual data are evaluated by treatment year and its classic health insurance statistics by billing year. Identical terms and similar franc amounts therefore do not yet guarantee directly interchangeable data series.
Nor does the table explain by itself what caused the cost increase. That would require a separate examination of volumes, prices, age structure and types of treatment. A higher sum is neither automatically proof of unnecessary medicine nor explained by ageing alone.
What regional differences do not prove
In its accompanying publication, the BFS reports monthly net costs for 2024 of around 425 francs in Ticino and 237 francs in Appenzell Innerrhoden. These raw values show differences, but not yet a ranking of efficient and inefficient care. That would require comparable patient groups and services, among other things.
For the political debate, the time series thus provides a robust starting point, not a ready-made culprit. It shows rising costs and a premium burden that is also growing and partly cushioned by subsidies. Whether new savings measures work and what insured persons pay today must be checked with later data or current tariffs – not with a table that ends in 2024.
Sources
- BFS: Costs and premiums of mandatory health care insurance, 2019–2024
- Swiss Stats Explorer: evaluated totals and monthly averages
- BFS: Health costs borne by mandatory health care insurance, 26 October 2026
- Federal Office of Public Health: health insurance statistics and the difference between observation years
- Lead image: Hadi / Wikimedia Commons, CC0 1.0
- Lead image licence: CC0 1.0
- Article image: Adrian Michael (Parpan05) / Wikimedia Commons
- Article image licence: CC BY 3.0
