Costs in Swiss health sector rose by 2.5% in 2022

The top three service providers were hospitals, old-age homes, and doctors' surgeries. Keystone / Christian Beutler

Healthcare costs rose by 2.5% in 2022 compared to the previous year to CHF91.5 billion ($100.7 billion).

However, the increase was below the average of the last five years, the Federal Statistical Office (FSO) said on Thursday.  

The big three service providers were hospitals, old-age homes, and doctors’ surgeries. Hospital services accounted for CHF32.6 billion of the costs, socio-medical facilities for CHF14.5 billion, and doctors’ surgeries for CHF13.7 billion; costs rose across all three sectors.  

The public sector, on the other hand, saw a decrease of 11.3%. According to the FSO, this was due to lower expenditure on prevention as well as healthcare goods and vaccines, as the Covid-19 pandemic ended in 2022. The volume of services provided by outpatient and home care providers and in the retail sector each rose by around 6%.  

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The costs for inpatient and outpatient treatments rose by 2.2% and 2.5%, respectively, compared to the previous year, while long-term care saw a rise of 3.4%. According to the FSO, these three areas generated around 63% of all healthcare costs in 2022.

Medicines, consumables and therapeutic devices accounted for CHF14.6 billion – the costs of which rose by 5.2% in 2022.

Compulsory health insurance financed CHF34.5 billion (up 3.8% on 2021) of the costs, and the state CHF20.3 billion. The privately financed share also rose by 3.9% to CHF19.7 billion.  

CHF526 per head per month  

In 2022, private households spent CHF526 per capita per month on healthcare – 60% of all montly per capita costs. The private share included premiums for basic and supplementary insurance, deductibles and medical supplies paid for out of pocket.  

Meanwhile, 32% of a total of CHF882 per head per month was accounted for by the public sector, and the rest by companies’ social security expenditure, among other things. In 2022, 52% of healthcare costs were incurred by those over 61 years old. 

Adapted from German by DeepL/kp,dos 

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