National Council wants to include foreigners in health insurance risk equalization
Published: Thursday, Dec 14th 2023, 10:50
العودة إلى البث المباشر
In future, foreign nationals insured in Switzerland - such as cross-border commuters - are to be included in the risk equalization scheme between health insurance companies. The National Council backed the Federal Council's proposal on Thursday.
By 132 votes to 0 with 62 abstentions, it approved a revision of the Federal Health Insurance Act, which will now go to the Council of States. With this revision, the Federal Council wants to strengthen solidarity in compulsory health insurance.
This is because risk equalization within the health insurance funds was created so that health insurers do not have an incentive to only insure people who are as healthy as possible. Insurers who have few people with a high risk of illness pay contributions into the risk equalization pot. Insurers who insure many high risks receive contributions from this.
The Federal Council says that the number of people resident abroad with health insurance in Switzerland is rising steadily. Around 170,000 foreign nationals had health insurance in Switzerland in 2021.
The system change is likely to result in higher premiums for foreigners insured in Switzerland and reduce the burden on policyholders in the cantons of Geneva and Basel, for example. This is the assumption of the national government.
Sans-papiers remain protected
The National Council rejected a motion whose authors only wanted to include insured persons living in EU or EFTA countries in the risk equalization scheme and not also those living in third countries.
Motions aimed at excluding undocumented migrants from health insurance or imposing a reporting obligation on health insurance funds for such insured persons were also rejected. On the other hand, a motion whose authors demanded the statistical recording of costs according to the nationality of the insured persons was accepted.
The revised law also provides for a simplified exchange of data between insurers and the cantons so that they can fulfill their respective tasks more easily. Data exchange should also be permitted in order to be able to exclude persons who have not been contactable by the insurers for some time.
A motion was also adopted whose authors demanded that the cantons not only have to provide the federal government with anonymized information on the beneficiaries for the purposes of reviewing social and family policy objectives. They should also state their nationality.
©كيستون/إسدا
Arabic 
English 
German 
French 
Spanish