What you should know about medication and generics

The Federal Office of Public Health specifies which medications may be paid for from the basic insurance. Supplementary insurance enables you to significantly increase the range of medications for which you can reclaim the costs.

You can only be refunded the costs of medications that have been medically prescribed. However, you can help to keep your own costs, and healthcare costs in general, to a minimum by choosing a lower-cost generic medication. You can save even more by ordering it from an online pharmacy. 

Medicines are patent-protected for a fixed period, after which generics or biosimilars may be produced. 

Generics contain the same active ingredient as the original medication and have the same effect in the body (bioequivalence). Possible differences are the manufacturer, name of the medication, the excipients, the dosage form and the price. Generics are usually cheaper than the original medications.

What excess do I have to pay with generic medication?

If you choose generics instead of the original medications from the list of medications with a higher excess, you only pay 10% instead of 40% excess.

You can check the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH)’s medication register yourself to find out the excess for your medication. The register will show your medication and all relevant alternatives.

Here’s what to do:

1. Select the option “Substanz” (substance) under “Suchkriterium” (search criterion) at the top left corner
2. To the right of that, enter the name of the active ingredient into the “Suchtext” (search text) field (get the name from the medication’s packaging)
3. Click “Suchen” (search)
4. The medication and all its alternatives are displayed for you in the search results
5. Is there a red X in the “SB” (excess) column? If yes, you are charged a 40% excess; if the field is blank, your excess is 10%.

Biosimilars are drugs that imitate a biotechnologically produced medication. They have strong similarities to the original product. However, they are never an exact copy due to the complex manufacturing processes involved. They are usually priced at a level well below that of the original products.

Talk to your GP if you would like to switch to a biosimilar.

Basic insurance

Basic insurance covers the costs of medically prescribed medications that are included in the specialities list or come under Art. 71a-d of the Health Insurance Ordinance KVV (case-by-case assessment).

TOP supplementary insurance

With TOP supplementary insurance, you receive 90% of the costs of medically prescribed medications not covered by basic insurance. These are known as "non-reimbursed medications". This is subject to the condition that the remedy used is recognised by the Swiss Agency for Therapeutic Products Swissmedic. Medications included in the list of pharmaceutical products with special uses (Liste der Präparate mit spezieller Verwendung (LPPV)) or the supplementary list are excluded.

SANA supplementary insurance

With SANA supplementary insurance, you receive 75% of the costs of medications prescribed by a physician or naturopath that are not covered by basic insurance. These are known as "non-reimbursed medications". This is subject to the condition that the treatment is provided by a doctor, a naturopath recognised by the insurer, or by a person who is recognised by the insurer as a paramedical therapist in a field of complementary medicine.

COMPLETA supplementary insurance

With COMPLETA supplementary insurance, you receive 90% of the costs of conventional medications and 75% of the costs of complementary medicine remedies that are not covered by your basic insurance. These are known as "non-reimbursed medications". This is subject to the condition that the remedy used is recognised by the Swiss Agency for Therapeutic Products Swissmedic. Medications included in the list of pharmaceutical products with special uses (Liste der Präparate mit spezieller Verwendung (LPPV)) or the supplementary list are excluded.

Further information