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- Swiss health insurance companies have enough reserves to cover the costs of the crown pandemic.
- However, health insurance associations disagree on how much health costs increased in the first quarter.
Santésuisse director Verena Nold said in an interview with the “Sonntags-Blick” that from January to March 2020 costs in the Swiss health system increased by five percent. That is above average. In the past 20 years, the increase in this period has been between three and four percent.
However, Curafutura spokesperson for health insurance association Ralph Kreuzer declined to confirm a 5 percent increase in the first quarter at the request of the Keystone-SDA news agency. Kreuzer said it was still decidedly early in the year for a serious evaluation of an increase in costs. Service providers have not yet received the invoice. In addition, March fell in the middle of the blockade.
Sufficient reserves from health insurance companies.
However, the two health insurance associations agree that there is enough money to cope with the pandemic. Health insurance companies had reserves of eight billion francs with which they could finance the additional costs of the crown crisis, Nold explained. This sum corresponds to three or four monthly premiums.
In Curafutura it is also said that the reserves are still available to the insured for the payment of benefits.
Higher premiums still unclear
For health insurers, costs are not the top priority, Nold emphasized. They wanted to help cope with the crisis and not put additional financial pressure on people due to the coronavirus. Higher premiums for the coming year should be avoided whenever possible.
According to Nold, the highest costs are nursing homes, physical therapy, and outpatient hospitalizations. In terms of costs, intensive treatments are particularly expensive. If a corona patient stays in an intensive care unit for two to three weeks, this could cost up to CHF 120,000.
According to Curafutura, it is still too early to make a forecast on premium development. “As long as we don’t have a reliable overall picture of operating costs, it is negligent to make statements about it,” said Kreuzer.
