Travel insurance pays what basic health insurance does not pay when you are outside Switzerland. The Federal Department of Foreign Affairs states it plainly: basic cover does not pay most rescue costs, treatment above the caps, or repatriation. The useful policy is judged on the destination and the length of the stay, not on the slogan in the brochure.

As long as your legal residence stays in Switzerland, compulsory insurance is not suspended for a holiday or a round-the-world trip. The Federal Office of Public Health says so for tourists and long-distance travellers. Travel insurance sits on top of that. It replaces neither health insurance nor the vehicle’s breakdown assistance.

What basic insurance pays abroad

Article 36 of the Health Insurance Ordinance draws a line. There is an emergency when you are staying temporarily abroad, you need treatment, and a return to Switzerland is not appropriate. There is no emergency if you travel in order to have that treatment. A hospital booked in advance for an operation is not holiday cover.

The cap then depends on the country. In the European Union, the EFTA and the United Kingdom, the European card opens necessary care under local rules. Elsewhere, the Swiss insurer reimburses an emergency only up to a maximum calculated on the Swiss tariff. The detail is on the FOPH page on care abroad.

That limit is why travel insurance exists. It does not buy a different kind of medicine. It covers the gap between the local bill and what the Swiss insurer accepts, plus costs the basic policy does not provide: search, repatriation, return of a body, and sometimes cancellation of the trip. Without those lines, it is easy to believe you are covered because you pay a basic premium every month.

EU, EFTA and the United Kingdom

For a temporary stay in an EU or EFTA state, or in the United Kingdom, the European Health Insurance Card is on the back of the Swiss card. It gives a right to care that is medically necessary given the treatment and the planned length of the stay. The catalogue is that of the country of treatment, not that of Switzerland. You are treated like a person insured locally, by a doctor or a hospital that accepts that scheme.

Cost-sharing follows the country you are visiting. It is usually paid on the spot. The Swiss deductible and co-payment do not apply to that share, and the amount paid abroad is not credited to your deductible in Switzerland. Forgetting the physical card does not close the right: the insurer can issue a provisional replacement certificate, for a limited time. The Common Institution under the KVG sets out the procedure by country.

The card does not pay a repatriation organised back to Switzerland, a private clinic outside the local scheme, or a mountain rescue on the other side of the border. A stay in France or Italy is therefore a case where basic cover does a lot, and where travel insurance is still there for the medical return, cancellation and excluded activities. Take the paper card. A photo on a phone is not accepted everywhere.

Outside the EU: the double cap, and Zug

Outside the EU, the EFTA and the United Kingdom, only emergency treatment is covered, and only up to twice what the insurer would have paid for the same treatment in Switzerland. For a hospital stay, the cap is lower than it sounds. In Switzerland, the canton pays at least 55% of an inpatient stay. That cantonal share does not exist abroad. The insurer, which bears at most 45% in Switzerland, therefore has to pay abroad at most 90% of what the same stay would have cost in Switzerland. The rest of the local bill is yours, unless a supplementary or travel policy pays it.

The FOPH names the United States, Canada, Japan, Australia and some Asian countries, where care and transport exceed the Swiss tariff, and countries that send foreign patients to expensive specialist clinics. A travel supplement is then the way to be reimbursed beyond the cap. Other care, the care that is not an emergency, is in principle not covered by the basic policy.

The canton of Zug adds a separate case for 2026 and 2027. It pays 99% of inpatient hospital treatment in Switzerland. The insurer bears 1%. Abroad, outside the EU, the EFTA and the United Kingdom, the insurer pays at most twice that share, which is 2% of the Swiss reference cost. The FOPH recommends, for the people concerned, travel insurance or a supplementary policy, especially for expensive countries and for posted workers. If you are insured in Zug, do not read the 90% cap as if it were yours.

Transport, rescue, repatriation

The FOPH guide to compulsory insurance sets two separate caps. Medically necessary transport, for example an ambulance to reach treatment, is reimbursed at 50%, up to CHF 500 per calendar year. Rescue of a person in mortal danger is reimbursed at 50%, up to CHF 5,000 per calendar year, and only in Switzerland. A mountain rescue abroad does not fall under that second cap.

Medical repatriation is a different bill. The basic policy does not organise it. Two insurers have published orders of magnitude, as examples and not as a tariff: CSS indicates about CHF 20,000 for an air-ambulance return from Greece, and about CHF 100,000 from Thailand or the United States. AXA indicates that an air ambulance in Europe can exceed CHF 20,000, and that a return from Bangkok currently sits between CHF 80,000 and 100,000. These amounts describe a mission, not the price of a policy. They show why a cap of CHF 500 does not answer the question.

Before you organise a transfer yourself, the assistance contract almost always asks you to call its centre. A transport ordered without agreement can remain yours to pay, even if the benefit exists on paper. Write down the number before departure, not in the emergency room.

What the FDFA and Rega do not replace

A Swiss representation helps Swiss and Liechtenstein nationals in distress. It is not an insurer, and there is no right to that help. The FDFA steps in only if you have first done what can reasonably be expected: organise yourself, contact the police, the rescue services or your insurer, and gather the money. For a hospital stay, a cost guarantee is given only after an advance or a written commitment from a third party. Consular services are in principle charged: CHF 150 an hour, plus out-of-pocket costs. A waiver is possible in case of indigence, not as the general rule.

Rega answers a different question. A support membership is not travel insurance. Rega may waive, for its patrons, the cost of a mission it carries out or organises, when insurers do not pay or pay only part. It writes that those costs run from a few thousand francs to several tens of thousands, and it recommends taking out travel insurance as well as supporting Rega. One does not cancel the other. The patron funds the service. The insurance contract creates a right, with exclusions.

Medical costs and cancellation

Under the same name, brochures mix two risks. Medical costs and assistance pay the emergency on the spot, the rescue and the medical return, within the policy limits. Cancellation pays, before departure or if the trip is cut short, a reason written in the conditions: illness, accident, death of a relative, sometimes another listed event. Cancellation does not pay the hospital when you arrive. Medical assistance does not refund a hotel deposit if you drop the trip.

The reasons for cancellation are not the same from one contract to the next. An epidemic, a strike, a refused visa or a change of mind are not there automatically. The time limit for reporting the claim is often short, and the illness generally has to be certified when the trip becomes impossible, not afterwards. Read the list of reasons and the cancellation deductible before you pay for the stay, especially if the ticket cannot be refunded.

Duration matters as much as the reason. A single-trip policy stops on the planned date. An annual policy has a maximum number of days per stay. Going past it means leaving the cover in the middle of the trip. For a round-the-world journey, Swiss basic insurance continues, within its caps, but the travel assistance has to be that of a long stay, not that of a week sold with an airline ticket.

The Schengen visa minimum of EUR 30,000

Article 15 of the Visa Code, Regulation (EC) No 810/2009, requires applicants for a uniform visa to hold travel medical insurance of at least EUR 30,000. It must cover medical repatriation, emergency medical care and emergency hospital care, or death. It is valid throughout the member states and for the whole stay. For a multiple-entry visa, the proof covers the first stay, and the applicant declares that later stays will be insured.

This rule is for people who apply for a visa to enter the Schengen area. It is not added to the basic insurance of a person living in Switzerland who goes on holiday to France or Italy. In the other direction, EUR 30,000 is not a useful ceiling for a hospital in the United States: the repatriation examples above already exceed that amount, before the treatment itself. If you invite someone who needs a visa, the insurance certificate is part of the file. If you yourself travel outside Schengen, the test is the real limit in the policy, not the minimum in the Visa Code.

Card, supplementary cover, car assistance

Travel cover is sometimes already somewhere: a health supplement, a payment card, vehicle assistance, an annual family policy. The overlap costs money only if it leaves a hole. Three questions are enough. What is the maximum length of the stay? Which countries are excluded? Did the trip have to be paid with the card for the assistance to exist?

Breakdown assistance follows the vehicle: repair, towing, continuing the journey. It does not treat the passengers and it does not pay a clinic. A health supplement may include a foreign section, with a health questionnaire and deadlines that are not those of a policy bought the day before the flight. A card often covers the holder and sometimes close family, for a number of days written in small print. If the ticket was paid another way, the benefit may not open.

Sports and a previous state of health are the other usual hole. An off-piste rescue, diving past a depth written in the contract, or a flare-up of an illness already known can be excluded. The contract says so. A “worldwide” brochure does not. For a trip with children, check that each child is named, not only the cardholder.

What to read before you leave

The order is six checks. It avoids paying a second time for cover you already have, or leaving with a cap that does not match the country.

  1. Sort the country: EU, EFTA or the United Kingdom, with the European card, or outside that zone, with the double cap and, in Zug in 2026 and 2027, the 2% share.
  2. Separate medical costs, repatriation and cancellation. Tick only the risks the trip actually creates.
  3. Reread the supplement, the card and the car assistance. Note the duration, the people, the sports and any duty to pay for the trip with the card.
  4. Compare the medical-cost limit with the country. A limit designed for Europe does not answer a North American bill.
  5. Keep the assistance-centre number and the paper basic-insurance card. Call the centre before you organise a transfer.
  6. Do not count on the FDFA to pay the hospital. Its help comes after the insurance, and it is charged.

Finwise, a brokerage firm in Geneva, can ask these questions against your file: destination, duration, people, a supplement already in place, a card, a vehicle. Basic advice is free of charge. The useful contract is the one that covers the gap left by basic insurance, not the one that repeats a benefit you already pay for.

Have my trip reviewed See health insurance

Sources

Further reading