Price watchdog: medical tests cost far more in Switzerland than abroad

The price watchdog wants the government to examine differences in prices for lab tests done in doctor's offices and those done by specialised laboratories in Switzerland. © Keystone / Gaetan Bally

Patients in Switzerland pay on average 2.3 times more for tests done by specialised laboratories and 4.5 times more for analyses in a doctor’s office than patients in France, Germany and the Netherlands.

The Swiss price watchdog examinedExternal link the costs of the ten most expensive medical tests in Switzerland and found each of them to be more expensive in the Alpine country than in the three other European states.

The differences in price were sometimes “disproportionate”, said the price supervisor, Stefan Meierhans, on Thursday. A blood test carried out in a doctor’s office in Switzerland, for example, cost 31 times more than it does in Germany. These differences accounted for an additional CHF1 billion ($1.08 billion) in expenses for Swiss health insurers in 2020 and CHF500 million for private households, he added.

Countries including France and Germany have been able to bring prices down thanks to “far-reaching structural reforms”, such as the professionalisation of services and more efficient structures like large laboratories, according to the watchdog.

Meierhans recommends that the interior ministry, which is responsible for health matters, fix prices on the basis of an international comparison, as it does for medicines. He also suggests the ministry examine the differences in prices between medical offices and specialised labs.

Labs dispute findings

In response to the watchdog’s report, the Medical Laboratories of Switzerland association saidExternal link prices could not be compared with other countries without taking into account other costs, such as rent, which is higher in Switzerland. Swiss workers’ qualifications are also higher and the lab system is decentralised, making international comparisons tricky.

The group also opposed the suggestion of fixing prices based on comparisons, arguing “analyses are services, not medical products”.