Healthcare costs: is the system broken?
Rising healthcare costs are a constant worry for many Swiss citizens. At the end of September, health insurance premiums for 2024 will be confirmed, but insurance companies have already revealed a premium increase of 8-9% for the coming year.
Health insurance premiums have been rising in Switzerland for several years. According to the Federal Statistical Office, healthcare cost CHF523 ($586) per month per inhabitant in 2001. In 2011 this figure had grown to CHF673, and by 2021 it was a whopping CHF827. The opinion poll conducted by the gfs.bern research institute on behalf of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SBC) also showed that this development is a worry for Swiss citizens. In all, 84% of the more than 50,000 respondents said this topic is of “great” or “quite great” concern to them.
Health insurance costs have thus also become a major issue in the campaign for the upcoming federal election on October 22. Political parties are proposing a wide variety of solutions, ranging from abolishing mandatory health insurance to linking it to disposable income.
The impending premium increase therefore continues to cause grey hairs among the population, but the ideal medicine to attend to the mounting cost of healthcare remains elusive.
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