Swiss perspectives in 10 languages

Swiss Senate approves package to combat rising healthcare costs 

Inside a wallet, a foil pill packet with individual orange pills, three of which are empty, as well as Swiss coins and a CHF200 note.
Half of the savings potential, estimated at CHF800 million per year, related to medicine prices. Keystone / Gaetan Bally

The Senate agreed to a reform package on Thursday aimed at getting a grip on rising healthcare costs.

It aims to do this through increased coordination, confidential pricing models and cheaper medicines.

Half of the savings potential, estimated at CHF800 million ($892 million) per year, related to medicine prices. The government will in future be able to establish bulk discounts for medicines with a large market volume.

Check out our selection of newsletters. Subscribe here.

This measure is aimed at a small number of established products which, however, account for a significant proportion of the cost of medicines. The proposal has not yet been discussed by the government or the House of Representatives. 

More

According to the Senate, further money would be saved through the introduction of coordinated care networks. The administration sees potential cost savings of around CHF250 million per year in this area. Although this proposal was roundly defeated in the House of Representatives last September, it is looking at the proposal again. 

Adapted from German by DeepL/kp/jdp

This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.

If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.

External Content
Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.
Almost finished… We need to confirm your email address. To complete the subscription process, please click the link in the email we just sent you.
Daily news

Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox.

Daily

The SBC Privacy Policy provides additional information on how your data is processed.

Most Read
Swiss Abroad

Most Discussed

News

German police officers stop a car at a German federal police checkpoint at the German-Polish border in Frankfurt Oder, Germany, 21 September 2024. Germany started expanding its border controls with its nine neighboring countries on 16 September 2024, with the aim to limit irregular migration. Since Germany reinstated temporary checks on its borders with Poland, the Czech Republic, Austria, and Switzerland in October 2023, federal police have recorded nearly 52,000 illegal border crossings and denied entry to about 30,000 individuals, according to the German Federal Ministry of the Interior and Community. EPA/FILIP SINGER

More

Most illegal entries to Germany in 2024 came via Switzerland

This content was published on The German Federal Police detected 53,410 illegal entry attempts into Germany in the first nine months of this year. Most refusals to entry occurred at the borders with Switzerland, it was reported on Sunday.

Read more: Most illegal entries to Germany in 2024 came via Switzerland

In compliance with the JTI standards

More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative

You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!

If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR