Use your health insurance before 31 December

What resets on 1 January in European health insurance?

Longetic keeps the record of what you have already had done this year, while each country's rules decide which deductibles and caps start again on 1 January. In 2026 they include the Dutch €385 eigen risico, the Swiss franchise and its CHF 700 cost-sharing cap, the German co-payment limit of 2% of income, the French €70 caps and the Belgian maximum à facturer.

This guide covers five systems where a government or health insurance body publishes a calendar-year rule: the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, France and Belgium. Switzerland is in Europe but not in the EU, and its basic insurance follows its own law. Every amount below is for 2026 and comes from an official page listed in the references. The UK and Ireland are not covered here.

Two of the five change more than usual at this year end. In Germany, a law published on 29 July 2026 cuts the dental subsidy for crowns and dentures and raises co-payments from 1 January 2027. In France, the annual caps on two flat deductions rose on 1 October 2026, so the cap for 2026 is higher than the one many guides still quote.

How does the Dutch eigen risico work at the end of the year?

Every adult with Dutch basic insurance pays the first €385 of most basic-package care in 2026 before the insurer pays, and the amount applies per calendar year, from 1 January to 31 December. GP care is exempt. To change insurer for 2027, the current policy has to be cancelled by 31 December 2026, and a new one can be taken out until 1 February 2027.

Zorginstituut Nederland states that the government sets the eigen risico again every year, for a calendar year. Besides GP care, Rijksoverheid lists midwifery and maternity care, district nursing and chain care for type 2 diabetes, COPD and cardiovascular risk among the care with no eigen risico. On top of the mandatory amount, a policyholder can choose a voluntary eigen risico of €100, €200, €300, €400 or €500 in return for a lower premium.

Insurers send the policy for the new year in November, and the switching rules work in two steps. A new policy taken out by 31 December cancels the old one automatically, and a policy can also be cancelled directly until that date. After that there is until 1 February to take out the new insurance, with cover backdated to 1 January. For 2027 the September 2026 budget says the eigen risico rises with inflation from €385 to €400.

What changes in German statutory insurance on 1 January 2027?

Two rules change for people in statutory insurance. The dental subsidy for crowns and dentures falls from 60% to 50% of the standard treatment, or to 60% and 65% with a full Bonusheft, but subsidies approved before 1 January 2027 keep the old rates. Co-payments rise to 10% of the price, at least €7.50 and at most €15, while the annual limits of 2% and 1% of income stay.

Both changes are in the GKV-Beitragssatzstabilisierungsgesetz, which the Bundestag passed on 10 July 2026 and which appeared in the Bundesgesetzblatt on 29 July 2026. Its new section 55 (6) of the Fifth Book of the Social Code keeps the 2026 rules for every Festzuschuss approved before 1 January 2027. The health ministry's FAQ adds that people on low incomes keep the hardship rule, which pays the full cost of the standard treatment.

The higher rates depend on the Bonusheft. Under the rule the KZBV describes, adults should have had a dental check-up at least once in every calendar year. Five years without a gap currently raise the subsidy from 60% to 70%, and ten years raise it to 75%, where a single missed year within the ten can be excused with a sufficient reason. A check-up in December 2026 is the last one that counts for 2026.

Co-payments in 2026 are 10% of the price, at least €5 and at most €10, and the Belastungsgrenze caps them at 2% of gross household income per calendar year, or 1% for people with a serious chronic illness. The ministry notes that the Krankenkasse does not tell members when they reach it and advises keeping the receipts. Once the limit is reached, the household can be exempted for the rest of the year, and the calculation can also be requested at the end of the year or early in the next, with any excess refunded.

Two German entitlements work differently. The Gesundheits-Check-up runs on its own interval, once between 18 and 35 and then every three years from 35, according to the KBV, and we compare it with other countries in what an annual physical includes by country. In private insurance the tariff sets the rules. The PKV-Verband describes the Selbstbehalt as an annual amount of at most €5,000 and the Beitragsrückerstattung as a refund counted in monthly premiums, paid when no benefits are claimed.

What are the Swiss deadlines for the franchise and the insurer?

In Swiss basic insurance, adults pay an annual franchise of CHF 300, or a chosen CHF 500 to 2,500 in return for a lower premium, then 10% of further costs up to CHF 700 a year. To change insurer for 1 January 2027, the cancellation has to reach the current insurer by 30 November 2026, and so does a request for a lower franchise.

Switzerland is in Europe but not in the EU, and these figures apply to people with Swiss basic insurance. According to the Federal Office of Public Health, children pay no franchise and their Selbstbehalt is capped at CHF 350, and most adults also pay CHF 15 a day in hospital. priminfo lists the optional franchises as CHF 500, 1,000, 1,500, 2,000 and 2,500, and notes that insurers do not have to offer all of them.

The timing depends on the direction. A lower franchise must be notified in writing by the last working day of November, which in 2026 is Monday 30 November, while a higher franchise can be chosen for the start of the year, with priminfo recommending notice by mid-December. With the CHF 300 franchise and the standard model, a change at the end of June is also possible with three months' notice. Insurers announce the next year's premium by the end of October, according to ch.ch, and the average premium for 2027 is CHF 412 a month, up 5.0%.

What resets in France on 1 January?

The two flat deductions the Assurance Maladie takes from reimbursements start again. The €2 participation forfaitaire on doctor visits, lab tests and imaging, and the franchises médicales of €1 per medicine box or paramedical act and €4 per medical transport, are each capped per person per calendar year. Both caps rose from €50 to €70 on 1 October 2026, which makes up to €140 a year.

The rise comes from a decree of 11 September 2026, as Service Public reports, and from 1 January 2028 both caps are to follow inflation. Daily limits still apply: €8 a day for the participation with the same professional, and €4 a day for paramedical acts and €8 for transport under the franchise rules. People under 18, beneficiaries of the Complémentaire santé solidaire and women from the sixth month of pregnancy are exempt from both.

The mutuelle, the complementary insurance, is a private contract, so its allowances are set by the contract, not by the state. Most are annual contracts that renew automatically, and they can be cancelled at any time after one year, according to Service Public, which also describes the 100% Santé equipment for glasses and hearing aids that carries no out-of-pocket cost under a contrat responsable. Not every allowance follows the calendar year: the Assurance Maladie's own contact lens allowance of €39.48 per eye runs from date to date.

How does the Belgian maximum à facturer work?

The maximum à facturer caps how much a household pays in tickets modérateurs, the patient's share of reimbursed care, in a year. In 2026 the ceiling ranges from €270.60 to €2,194.20 depending on the household's net taxable income, with €548.55 for households entitled to the intervention majorée. Above the ceiling, the mutualité refunds the difference automatically, once a month.

The 2026 brackets are in the INAMI table of ceilings. A child under 19 has an individual ceiling of €792.35, and a household's ceiling falls by €121.90 when a member has chronic illness status or paid at least €516.92 in 2024 and €527.27 in 2025. INAMI checks the household's composition on 1 January of the year concerned, and because the income check only starts once the lowest ceiling is reached, the first income-based refunds usually come in early summer.

Belgian dental care has a calendar-year rule of its own. Under the trajet de soins buccaux, people aged 19 and over who had no dental care reimbursed in the previous calendar year pay roughly double the patient share for fillings, root canal treatment and extractions. Consultations, preventive care, orthodontics, periodontal care and X-rays are outside the rule. Dental care received and reimbursed in 2026 therefore sets the rate for 2027.

What is worth checking before 31 December?

Three things usually decide what is left of the year: the record of what has already been done, how much of the deductible or cap has been used, and any deadline that falls before the reset. For 2026 the dated ones are 30 November in Switzerland, 31 December for Dutch cancellations and German dental subsidy approvals, and 1 February 2027 for joining a new Dutch insurer.

The first of the three is the one most people do not have in one place, because results, prescriptions and visit notes sit with different doctors and laboratories. For people who live between two countries the problem doubles, which is why we wrote about which medical records to bring to a doctor abroad. Our free screening tool takes your age and sex and lists the guideline-based screenings worth discussing with a doctor, which is a separate question from what your insurer pays for.

As a disclosure, Longetic is our product, so weigh this accordingly. It keeps lab reports, medications, diagnoses and visits in one timeline, which answers the first question and not the other two: it has no insurer connection and does not track deductibles, caps or deadlines. It runs on iPhone with iOS 18.6 or later, there is no Android app, and reports can also be uploaded from a computer at app.longetic.com.

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