Basic insurance: cost coverage for laser eye surgery
Basic insurance is compulsory in Switzerland and provides basic healthcare. If your laser eye surgery is a procedure that is carried out to correct a visual defect, it is not a “medically necessary treatment”. For this reason, basic insurance does not usually cover laser eye surgery costs in this case.
Under certain circumstances, however, there are exceptional cases in which even basic insurance – even without supplementary insurance – will reimburse you for all or part of the costs incurred:
- Contact lens & spectacle intolerance with existing visual impairment
- Contact lens intolerance with a visual impairment of at least +/- 10 diopters
- Contact lens intolerance with a difference in visual impairment between the two eyes of at least +/- 3 diopters
- Cataract surgery (refractive lens exchange) with monofocal lenses
Procedure for cost coverage by basic insurance:
If you meet one of the requirements for laser eye surgery to be covered by Swiss basic insurance, your health insurance company can reimburse the costs of the procedure “after special consultation”. To do this, you must submit a certificate from EyeLaser to the insurance company in advance, confirming that the above-mentioned requirements have been met.
Your health insurance company will then decide whether and how much it will pay. It is conceivable that only the costs for one eye will be covered, as glasses could then correct the remaining defective vision. However, if the visual defect is to be completely corrected, you will have to bear the remaining costs yourself.
Conclusion: It depends on the individual case and must be clarified in advance in order to have the necessary certainty.
Have a medical report drawn up by EyeLaser Zurich:
As an eye laser specialist in Zurich, we will be happy to provide you with comprehensive advice regarding your vision correction through laser eye surgery or lens surgery. We are familiar with the process of having the costs of laser eye surgery covered by health insurance and can support you with the necessary medical documents.
In the course of the preliminary examination, your eyes and your defective vision will be comprehensively examined and we will be happy to draw up a corresponding report for you, including the following transparent cost accounting.
Info call
0 CHF
Preliminary examination
290 CHF
*These costs will be credited to the following laser eye treatment. The appointment is non-binding. If you ultimately decide against treatment at EyeLaser Zurich, we will waive the costs of the preliminary examination in full – apart from the costs of the ophthalmologist’s examination. The preliminary examination is therefore completely risk-free for you!
Laser eye surgery supplementary insurance in Switzerland:
The chances that your health insurance company will cover the laser eye surgery costs are significantly higher if you have opted for appropriate supplementary insurance. Whether and up to what amount supplementary insurance will support you depends on the insurer and the selected tariff.
There are over 50 health insurance companies in Switzerland, each offering different portfolios of supplementary benefits. Below we have compiled an overview of health insurances and their supplementary insurances that cover (at least part of) the costs of laser eye surgery: Please note that our list does not claim to be complete, up-to-date or correct. You should always check for yourself, then consult your health insurance company individually and obtain their approval to be sure that they will cover the costs.
Multifocal lenses cost coverage health insurance – Health insurance with eye laser cost coverage
Health insurance without eye laser cost coverage
There are also health insurance companies that cover the costs of glasses and contact lenses without special supplementary insurance – but do not cover laser eye surgery. The following insurances do not cover the costs of laser eye surgery / refractive surgery:
If you have taken out basic insurance with these insurers, there is only a chance of costs being covered if at least one of the above conditions is met.
Our insurers
We are proud to be associated with top quality private medical insurance
Quality of life, freedom & independence: not worth any money in the world
What you invest in laser eye treatment today will benefit you for the rest of your life. The high prices are largely due to the extremely expensive equipment we need to give you a clear view.
However, we want as many people as possible to be able to live without visual impairment and dependence on glasses or contact lenses. We are therefore currently working on being able to offer you attractive financing models (interest-free financing over 6 months or loan installments over 5 years) and support you with the assumption of costs by your health insurance company.
Which laser eye surgery method suits your eyes, your everyday life & your budget?
Termin vereinbarenUnsicher, ob Ihre Krankenkasse die Augenlaser Kosten übernimmt?
Step 1: Check basic insurance
Check whether there is a case in which the basic insurance is obliged to pay.
Schritt 2: Zusatzversicherung prüfen
Check whether you have taken out supplementary insurance that offers special benefits for visual defects.
Step 3: Determine the benefits of supplementary insurance
Find out whether and what entitlement you have if you opt for laser eye surgery.
Step 4: Obtain information & commitment
Clarify with your insurance company individually that your laser eye surgery costs will be covered in the contractually agreed amount and find out what you need to do or present to do so.
Step 5: Determine your cost share
Deduct the costs covered by your health insurance from the total costs to determine how much you will have to pay yourself.
Step 6: Process cost assumption
After the laser eye surgery, submit the remaining necessary documents and process the assumption of costs as agreed in step 4. Thanks to your careful preparation, the refund is safe and uncomplicated.
Step 7: Receive money & enjoy the result
Enjoy your newfound clarity of vision and enjoy the finer things in life without worrying about money. The money from your health insurance sometimes reduces the laser eye surgery costs considerably.
Lens exchange / cataract surgery health insurance:
A lens exchange involves replacing the body’s natural lens with an artificial lens. If this procedure is carried out to correct a visual defect(short-sightedness, long-sightedness, presbyopia or astigmatism), the health insurance company will only pay for it under the conditions of laser eye surgery.
The situation is different if lens replacement – also known as cataract surgery – is medically necessary because the natural lens becomes cloudy. In these cases, the lens must be replaced, otherwise the patient may even go blind.
Health insurance companies (basic insurance) cover cataract surgery using monofocal lenses.
Why an additional payment for a multifocal lens can be worthwhile
If the patient suffers from other visual defects in addition to cataracts, the monofocal lens (with one focal point) can only provide sharp vision at a distance or (!) at close range. Astigmatism cannot be corrected and you will most likely need to wear reading glasses after the procedure.
A premium multifocal lens / EDOF (with several focal points) enables a holistic correction of visual defects in addition to the healing of the cataract. You will no longer need to wear any visual aids and will be permanently free of myopia, long-sightedness, presbyopia, astigmatism and cataracts.
The surcharge for permanent freedom from spectacles gives you so much additional quality of life that we can only warmly recommend you opt for multifocal lenses(premium lens exchange)!
Eye surgery with Swiss precision
Quality is in our DNA
Everything we do is optimised down to the very finest detail.
There’s a right way and a wrong way
The right clinic is not too cheap, too “chain” or too costly. The right clinic is precisely right.
Superior precision
Our vision correction method leaves no room for disappointment.
Get to know the eye experts
Discover our laser eye surgeons in the heart of Zurich
Ophthalmologist, specialist in refractive surgery
FEBO
Having learned his craft from the two pioneers of laser surgery, Dr. Victor Derhartunian is one of the leading surgeons in Europe. The senior eye surgeon at EyeLaser in Zurich can advise his patients in 5 languages.
Ophthalmologist and eye surgeon
FEBO
Since 2024, Dr. Valery Lenzt Wittwer joins the EyeLaser Zurich team. He specializes in lens surgery and enables patients to live without cataracts and/or visual defects through cataract surgery and ICL lens implantation.