Residents of Zug may well be the luckiest people in Switzerland: their health insurance will not only NOT increase, but it will actually fall. How is this possible?
As many residents of the other 25 Swiss cantons struggle to keep up with the steadily rising health insurance rates — 6 percent on average in 2025, after substantial hikes in previous years as well — Zug’s population will see their premiums… drop by a staggering 18 percent.
How is this possible?
The wealthy canton can afford to be generous: its coffers overflow with money.
It has equity of 2.6 billion francs and regularly generates annual bonuses of more than 300 million
Not only are their tax rates lowest in the country, but their health insurance premiums will be as well.
That’s because over the next two years, the canton will use its surpluses to cover 99 percent of hospital costs for its approximately 130,000 residents.
This is a really generous gesture because in other cantons this coverage amounts to 55 percent of costs, while insurance carriers — that is, the public — pay the remaining 45 percent.
As Zug’s health insurance companies won’t have to cover hospital costs, they will have fewer out-of-pocket expenses, which means premiums will fall by 18 percent — about 700 francs per person in 2026 and 2027.
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Taxes as well
Zug residents will not only benefit from lower health insurance costs, but are already taking advantage of the lowest tax rate in the country.
According to Tribune de Genève, “a married couple with two children and a gross annual income of 125,000 francs will pay 15,447 francs per year in taxes in Neuchâtel, 14,406 francs in Lausanne, 10,376 francs in Geneva, but only…2,182 francs in Zug.”
READ ALSO: Why does the canton of Zug have Switzerland’s lowest taxes?
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Health insurance, taxes…is there no downside to living in Zug?
Only one: scarcity of affordable housing.
In this sense, Zug is a victim of its own success: because of its low taxes, it has become an in-demand place to live for individuals, and an attractive location for company headquarters as well.
As the potential for building new apartments in and around the canton’s 11 municipalities is being exhausted, it has become increasingly more difficult to find reasonably- priced rental housing.
