According to Santésuisse, health costs have already increased by 7.5% per capita in the first two months of 2023. “The result is a further rise in premiums,” says Verena Nold, director of the association of health insurers .
The health insurance companies have already lost 1.5 billion francs last year. “Now there is not enough to fill the gaps,” says Verena Nold in an interview with Sunday view. Soon people who normally earn a living will no longer be able to afford health insurance premiums. “If we do nothing, our health system will go straight into the wall.”
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The Federal Council set last year a political bonus which is insufficient, according to the director of Santésuisse. “One day or another, it will catch up with us. We should have already increased premiums by 10% for 2023.”
Service mandates
It is above all the rise in drug costs and the large number of prescribed drugs that are to blame. Verena Nold asks that treatments proven to be of no benefit be removed from the catalog of benefits.
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“If we want our system to be sustainably fundable, we need to become more efficient.” For this, the cantons should apply strict criteria to hospitals and no longer “assign all service mandates to each small hospital”, according to Verena Nold.
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Health insurance premiums jumped by 6.6% on average between 2022 and 2023, in connection with the pandemic and the catch-up effects. According to the Federal Office of Public Health (OFSP), the average premium for adults has risen to 397.20 francs per month. The premium for young adults increased by 6.3% to reach 279.90 francs per month. Those of children increased by 5.5% to an average of 105 francs.
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