Health insurance hammer: ‘Increasing premiums is essential’

Health insurance premiums should rise by 8 to 9 percent in 2024 to cover rising healthcare costs. This is what Santésuisse director Verena Nold says in the “Saturday Review” of the Swiss Radio and Television (SRF).

However, the Federal Office of Public Health (BAG) is putting pressure on premiums not to increase so much, said the health insurer’s director.. According to Nold, however, this would lead to an even greater increase in premiums in the coming years.

The health insurers should already fall back on their reserves. Because healthcare costs have risen again this year by six to seven percent, a premium increase is inevitable. The reserves have been used up, Nold said.

In the long term, Nold sees the solution in reducing healthcare costs. You have to start with the cause, she said. Generic medicines, for example, are twice as expensive in Switzerland as abroad.

In addition, the director of Santésuisse advocated making the GP model or other savings models for health insurance the standard model in the Saturday news. The free choice of a doctor as a model should be explicitly bought.

The Federal Office of Public Health announces the final amount of health insurance premiums for 2024 every year in September.

(jam/sda)