diff --git a/cmd/kube-apiserver/app/options/options_test.go b/cmd/kube-apiserver/app/options/options_test.go
index 9cbfa44a3ed..a412f37e10f 100644
--- a/cmd/kube-apiserver/app/options/options_test.go
+++ b/cmd/kube-apiserver/app/options/options_test.go
@@ -160,6 +160,7 @@ func TestAddFlags(t *testing.T) {
 				CompactionInterval:    storagebackend.DefaultCompactInterval,
 				CountMetricPollPeriod: time.Minute,
 				DBMetricPollInterval:  storagebackend.DefaultDBMetricPollInterval,
+				HealthcheckTimeout:    storagebackend.DefaultHealthcheckTimeout,
 			},
 			DefaultStorageMediaType: "application/vnd.kubernetes.protobuf",
 			DeleteCollectionWorkers: 1,
diff --git a/staging/src/k8s.io/apiserver/pkg/server/options/etcd.go b/staging/src/k8s.io/apiserver/pkg/server/options/etcd.go
index 192edeb6b21..d9c6f9e54bb 100644
--- a/staging/src/k8s.io/apiserver/pkg/server/options/etcd.go
+++ b/staging/src/k8s.io/apiserver/pkg/server/options/etcd.go
@@ -180,6 +180,9 @@ func (s *EtcdOptions) AddFlags(fs *pflag.FlagSet) {
 
 	fs.DurationVar(&s.StorageConfig.DBMetricPollInterval, "etcd-db-metric-poll-interval", s.StorageConfig.DBMetricPollInterval,
 		"The interval of requests to poll etcd and update metric. 0 disables the metric collection")
+
+	fs.DurationVar(&s.StorageConfig.HealthcheckTimeout, "etcd-healthcheck-timeout", s.StorageConfig.HealthcheckTimeout,
+		"The timeout to use when checking etcd health.")
 }
 
 func (s *EtcdOptions) ApplyTo(c *server.Config) error {
diff --git a/staging/src/k8s.io/apiserver/pkg/storage/storagebackend/config.go b/staging/src/k8s.io/apiserver/pkg/storage/storagebackend/config.go
index 5dc0bbfb349..af94efcea88 100644
--- a/staging/src/k8s.io/apiserver/pkg/storage/storagebackend/config.go
+++ b/staging/src/k8s.io/apiserver/pkg/storage/storagebackend/config.go
@@ -30,6 +30,7 @@ const (
 
 	DefaultCompactInterval      = 5 * time.Minute
 	DefaultDBMetricPollInterval = 30 * time.Second
+	DefaultHealthcheckTimeout   = 2 * time.Second
 )
 
 // TransportConfig holds all connection related info,  i.e. equal TransportConfig means equal servers we talk to.
@@ -74,6 +75,8 @@ type Config struct {
 	CountMetricPollPeriod time.Duration
 	// DBMetricPollInterval specifies how often should storage backend metric be updated.
 	DBMetricPollInterval time.Duration
+	// HealthcheckTimeout specifies the timeout used when checking health
+	HealthcheckTimeout time.Duration
 }
 
 func NewDefaultConfig(prefix string, codec runtime.Codec) *Config {
@@ -83,5 +86,6 @@ func NewDefaultConfig(prefix string, codec runtime.Codec) *Config {
 		Codec:                codec,
 		CompactionInterval:   DefaultCompactInterval,
 		DBMetricPollInterval: DefaultDBMetricPollInterval,
+		HealthcheckTimeout:   DefaultHealthcheckTimeout,
 	}
 }
diff --git a/staging/src/k8s.io/apiserver/pkg/storage/storagebackend/factory/etcd3.go b/staging/src/k8s.io/apiserver/pkg/storage/storagebackend/factory/etcd3.go
index 3d1f2f150fa..9a1618df8dd 100644
--- a/staging/src/k8s.io/apiserver/pkg/storage/storagebackend/factory/etcd3.go
+++ b/staging/src/k8s.io/apiserver/pkg/storage/storagebackend/factory/etcd3.go
@@ -92,7 +92,11 @@ func newETCD3HealthCheck(c storagebackend.Config) (func() error, error) {
 			return fmt.Errorf(errMsg)
 		}
 		client := clientValue.Load().(*clientv3.Client)
-		ctx, cancel := context.WithTimeout(context.Background(), 2*time.Second)
+		healthcheckTimeout := storagebackend.DefaultHealthcheckTimeout
+		if c.HealthcheckTimeout != time.Duration(0) {
+			healthcheckTimeout = c.HealthcheckTimeout
+		}
+		ctx, cancel := context.WithTimeout(context.Background(), healthcheckTimeout)
 		defer cancel()
 		// See https://github.com/etcd-io/etcd/blob/c57f8b3af865d1b531b979889c602ba14377420e/etcdctl/ctlv3/command/ep_command.go#L118
 		_, err := client.Get(ctx, path.Join("/", c.Prefix, "health"))