Can you deduct health insurance premiums from tax?

You can offset medical expenses against tax depending on what canton you live in and your taxable income. Find out which expenses are tax-deductible and what you need for your tax return here.

Which medical expenses are tax-deductible?

Illness and accident costs under basic and supplementary insurance that you have paid for yourself are tax-deductible, these include:

  • Visits to the doctor
  • Hospital stays
  • Medication
  • Vaccinations
  • Dental costs
  • Glasses or laser eye surgery
  • Treatment for maintaining or restoring physical and mental health

You can also offset your health insurance deductible or excess against tax. You can deduct health insurance premiums up to a maximum amount in your tax return – with or without a premium reduction.

Deduct children’s contributions

Your children’s health insurance contributions are also tax-deductible, provided they are also insured under your insurance policy. You can detail the expenses in your tax return.

Not tax-deductible

Contributions covered by OASI, DI or accident insurance are not tax-deductible.

Tax deductions are regulated at cantonal level

Whether or not the illness and accident costs you pay for yourself are tax-deductible depends on your canton. To be eligible for tax deduction, out-of-pocket medical expenses must exceed a certain percentage of your income. Ask your cantonal tax authority about the options available to you.

Tip: have your tax statement ready before calling.

Health insurance: tax statement

You will automatically receive a tax certificate from your health insurance company at the end of January each year. On this tax statement, you will find all the medical expenses you submitted to Helsana which we were able to settle during the tax year. In fact, the tax statement will be ready for you on the myHelsana portal from mid-January.

What does the tax statement contain?

The tax statement contains all the information you need to provide in your tax return:

  • Basic and supplementary health insurance premiums
  • Any premium reduction
  • Total out-of-pocket illness and accident costs
  • An overview of all invoices submitted and for which you received a benefit statement

Important: it is the invoice date that matters in your tax return, not the date of treatment. Only invoices settled by Helsana the previous year are taken into account for the current tax period. Any subsequent invoice settlements will appear on the statement for the following year.

Order tax statement manually

You can easily order your current tax statement in your myHelsana account. It only takes a few seconds to register thanks to our swift process.

Order tax statement following a change of insurance provider

Are you no longer insured with Helsana, but require a tax statement? Our Customer Service team will be happy to help you: 0844 80 81 82.

Filled in your tax return correctly?

Don’t forget to attach all the necessary documents to your tax return: for instance, medical certificates or receipts for out-of-pocket expenses not covered by your health insurance and therefore not yet listed on your tax statement (such as massages, acupuncture, physiotherapy, speech therapist, optician, dentist, etc.).

Frequently asked questions about tax returns

You can select the feature on myHelsana (app or desktop version). Click on the family contact person in the menu under “More”. There, you can select delivery in paper form under “Settings > Documents”. You will receive the statement on myHelsana and by post in mid-January.

We will deliver your tax statement to you for free.

If you want to claim all deductions, you should enclose your tax statement for inspection by the tax office. This will make it easier for the tax office to check the allowable deductions.

Yes. If you receive a premium reduction, you must disclose this along with your health insurance premium. You must pay tax on the premium reduction.

We do not know who fills in your tax return, so we send the tax statement to you directly. 

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