As an insurer, we use premiums to cover the treatment costs we have to pay. That means that basic insurance premiums are a reflection of health costs. The more treatment costs rise, the more premiums rise too. That was the case last year and is the case this year again too.

Some of the reasons for rising premiums are:

• Medical and technological progress is creating more expensive methods of treatment.
• We are living longer and making use of more services.
• Demand for healthcare services is growing.
• Basic health insurance has to cover an increasing number of benefits.
• Outpatient treatment in hospitals is increasing and basic insurance covers the full cost of such treatment.
• Some areas of healthcare are too expensive. Medicine prices are too high compared to the EU and cheaper generics are rarely used.
• Unnecessary or overly expensive treatments are conducted, partly for financial reasons.
• In recent years, health insurers had to offer lower premiums in response to political pressure. Increased premiums are now needed to balance this out.

Premiums are increasing by 4.4 percent across the industry as a whole. With an average increase of 3.4 percent, V⁠i⁠s⁠a⁠n⁠a is well placed compared to the market.

Premiums vary depending on which canton and premium region you live in and how old you are. The more service providers (doctors, hospitals or pharmacies) there are in a canton or region, the higher the health costs – and therefore also the premiums – in that canton or region.

The principle of social health insurance does not permit insurance companies to pick which customers they admit to their basic insurance. For this reason, the demographic structure of the people we insure in individual premium regions can vary, which in turn affects benefit costs and premiums.

Health insurers are prohibited from making profits. We cannot earn a profit on basic insurance. If we increase premiums, we can only do so to cover costs. If the premiums we set are too high, the surplus has to be assigned to the reserves prescribed by law, which in turn benefit the people we insure.

Our main task as a health insurer is to systematically check invoices to save premium payers having to do so. Last year we saved over 500 million francs on behalf of the people we insure. V⁠i⁠s⁠a⁠n⁠a is committed to business and premium policies that are both stable and sustainable and to using its own funds carefully.

We are also trying to counter rising costs by innovating health insurance. Efforts are focusing on the integrated care model that we launched in 2024 in the Jura Arc area of the canton of Bern in the form of “Réseau de l’Arc” and the new “VIVA” basic insurance model. The Réseau de l’Arc healthcare organisation provides VIVA members with all healthcare services from a single source. The model has also been available in Ticino since 2025 and VIVA will also be extended to the Aare Network (Zofingen region and adjoining areas of the cantons of Lucerne and Solothurn) from 2026.

If you require clarification or additional information, please refer to the brochures below or contact us direct (see contact details on your policy document). We’ll be happy to advise you.