One in twenty people ends up on the blacklist: more and more health insurance premiums cannot be paid in Ticino

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The number of people who can no longer pay their health insurance bills is increasing. In the cantons of Ticino, Thurgau, Aargau and Lucerne, more people are blacklisted than ever before, the Tamedia newspapers report. For those affected, this means that the health insurer will only pay out in the event of an emergency.

The number of premium offenders is highest in Ticino. Every twentieth person in the southern canton is now on the hook for the cash register. According to the canton’s social insurance agency, 6,000 to 7,000 people become insolvent every year.

In the other cantons that still have blacklists, these are also getting longer every year. The increase is considerably smaller than in Ticino.

High bonuses, low wages

One reason for the negative results in Ticino is probably that premiums there are extremely high. On average, a resident of Ticino pays 430 francs monthly. Only in Basel-Stadt and Geneva are the average premiums even higher. By comparison, Appenzellers only have to spend an average of 246 francs.

This in turn is partly due to the fact that the highest percentage of seniors live in Ticino. The canton also has an above-average number of poor people at home and wages are lower than in the rest of Switzerland. “Given these circumstances, it does not surprise me that so many people in Ticino cannot pay their health insurance premium,” Ticino SP state councilor Bruno Storni (69) told the Tamedia newspapers.

Controversial practice

Blacklists of late premium payers are controversial. Many cantons have abolished them in recent years. One argument is that the list has no deterrent effect. It can also have tragic consequences. In the canton of Graubünden, a man died at the end of 2017 from comorbidity with AIDS – the health insurer refused to pay for therapy because he was on the blacklist.

Particular criticism came when children were denied medical treatment. Thurgau was the last canton where minors were also blacklisted. This is no longer the case since 2020. Attempts by left-wing politicians to completely ban blacklisting for premium offenders across Switzerland have so far failed. (lha)

Source:Blick