Swiss government rejects initiatives to reduce health cost burden

The government wants to tackle the increasing burden of health insurance premiums with two bills passed by parliament.   KEYSTONE/© KEYSTONE / CHRISTIAN BEUTLER

No, no and no: the Federal Council recommends rejecting all three people’s initiatives that will be put to the ballot box on June 9. It wants to instead tackle the increasing burden of health insurance premiums with two bills passed by parliament.  

The government regards the initiative led by the Social Democrats, “Maximum 10% of income for health insurance premiums (premium relief initiative)” as unacceptable because, among other issues, the majority of contributions would have to be paid by the federal government. Furthermore, the initiative contains no direct incentive to curb healthcare costs.  

Instead, the government favours the more cost-effective indirect counterproposal of parliament, it said on Friday. This would link the amount of premium reductions to be paid by a canton to its healthcare costs.  

Cost brake too rigid  

The situation is similar with the people’s initiative “For lower premiums – cost brake in the healthcare system (cost brake initiative)” from The Centre Party. This cost brake was considered too rigid by the government and parliament because it fails to take into account factors such as the ageing population and medical advances.  

Here, too, the government intends that a bill passed by parliament, instead of a new article in the constitution, will take effect. The bill stipulates that the government would have to set a maximum increase in the costs of compulsory health insurance every four years. If costs were to rise above this amount without justification, the government and cantons would have to consider countermeasures.  

Consequences of third initiative unclear 

Finally, the government has opposed the people’s initiative “For freedom and physical integrity (stop compulsory vaccination initiative)” launched by vaccination sceptics. The government argued that the initiative’s core concern, physical and mental integrity, is already enshrined as a fundamental right in the federal constitution.  

It is also unclear what the specific consequences of accepting the initiative would be, for instance concerning the work of the police.  

Adapted from German by DeepL/kc/ts

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