BERN - Policyholders who had hoped the 2026 premium letter was a rounding error found otherwise in January. The Federal Office of Public Health had already set the average basic premium at CHF 393.30 a month, up 4.4 percent. Adult cover rose 4.1 percent to CHF 465.30. Interior minister Elisabeth Baume-Schneider had said in the autumn that premiums follow costs, not the other way around.
Ticino faced an average jump of 7.1 percent, Valais 5.9 percent. Appenzell Innerrhoden, Graubuenden and Uri also sat well above the national mean. Cantonal social offices reported longer queues for premium subsidies in the first working week, a seasonal ritual that now lasts into February.
A political file that never leaves
Parties will carry the same argument into the spring session: the left wants tighter control of hospital and drug prices, the right wants higher deductibles, and households want a smaller envelope. None of those fights change the debit that left accounts on 1 January.