Sat, Feb 3rd 2024
Swiss healthcare costs surge by 4.6% in 2023, with significant increases in physiotherapy, outpatient care, inpatient hospital services, and medication costs, prompting calls for policy reforms.
According to a study by the association Curafutura, healthcare costs for compulsory health insurance (OKP) rose by 4.6% in 2023 compared to the previous year. The gross costs per insured person amounted to CHF 4,513 per year.
In comparison: in 2022, costs rose by 2.6 percent compared to the previous year.
The strongest rise in costs was in the area of physiotherapy, with an increase of seven percent. This is due to a long-term trend, as more conservative treatments are being carried out, Curafutura announced on Saturday. Costs also rose by 6.1 percent in the area of outpatient assistance and care (Spitex).
At plus 5.3 percent, a significant increase in costs was also recorded in the inpatient hospital sector. This is unexpected, as the trend is moving from inpatient to outpatient care. More and more operations could be performed on an outpatient basis without the patient having to spend the night in hospital. Overall, the inpatient hospital sector accounted for 19 percent of total OKP costs. In the view of the insurers’ association Curafutura, outpatient care must therefore be further promoted.
Medication costs also rose by four percent year-on-year in 2023. According to Curafutura, they accounted for 22% of basic insurance costs. According to the association, the rules for setting prices are no longer appropriate in view of the fact that more and more expensive therapies are coming onto the market.
It is therefore calling on Parliament to introduce the budget impact as a criterion. Curafutura referred to the motion passed by Josef Dittli, a member of the FDP Council of States from the canton of Uri. This would allow the commercial success of a drug to be taken into account by providing for automatic price discounts above a certain sales threshold (e.g. CHF 20 million per year).
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