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She wanted to limit the sale of alcohol and fight tobacco advertising: Anne Lévy caused a sensation with her prevention policy. Now you have to put the Wobbly BAG on course. Peers trust her to do it. When it comes down to it, she’s “tough.”
Anne Lévy, the new director of the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH), poses in Bern on Friday, April 3, 2020.
Rarely has an authority been as intensely in the media spotlight for months as the Federal Office of Public Health (BAG) since the outbreak of the Corona crisis. The week-long dispute over the mask requirement, irritation over the list of risk countries or various miscommunication regarding corona numbers made it clear in the past six months what issues the office is struggling with. Therefore, the change at the top of the BAG represents a new beginning in the midst of a crisis situation, especially since the previous director, Pascal Strupler, was hardly seen in the intensive phase of Corona and did not seem safe.
Again not a doctor
For Anne Lévy, who will assume the leadership of the Federal Office on October 1, this initial position is an opportunity. If you can quickly improve crisis management in the coming winter months and should the pandemic flare up again, you will acquire political capital. You can use it to address other health care challenges. Among healthcare players, hopes for a prominent manager with more presence and innovative strength are high, after Strupler’s BAG was not seen as particularly dynamic and the boss himself remained rather bland.
Unlike his predecessor, who had little to do with health policy before taking over as director of BAG ten years ago, Lévy has extensive experience in this area, a clear advantage. It is true that the new head of office is not a doctor either, which is especially important because the management of the BAG lacks medical specialists. In his previous roles, Lévy had little direct contact with patients.
But since she finished her studies, she has been working in various positions in the health sector, most recently as general director of the University Psychiatric Clinic in Basel (UPK). Lévy, 48, who does not want to speak to the media before taking office, knows what drives the industry.
The work with drugs was formative
Anne Lévy came to Basel from Bern as a teenager in the late 1980s, when her father, Philippe Lévy, took over the general management of the Muba trade fair company. She graduated from high school in Basel and met her current husband. Its roots can still be heard today and it has preserved its Bernese dialect. Her degree in political science in Lausanne and her brief stint at the Directorate for Development Cooperation (SDC) did not initially indicate a career in the health sector.
His first position as a drug specialist in the city of Bern, however, marked his future career. Two years ago, Lévy told “Switzerland at the weekend” that this job had been the most formative for her. After the years in Bern, Lévy moved for the first time to the Federal Office of Public Health, where he headed the alcohol and tobacco section until 2009.
Plans to ban the sale of alcohol from 9pm and brain games about an increase in beer prices based on the Swedish model caused a stir during his tenure at the time. In this way, the BAG wanted to curb the growing consumption of alcohol among young people. “Bernese officials kissed by the moose” was the headline of the “Blick”; Ultimately, both projects proved to have no chance.
Her five-year tenure as president of the Addiction Foundation Switzerland until 2019 shows where Lévy sets her priorities. Spicy: As a member of the initiative committee, Lévy helped launch the popular initiative “Yes to the protection of children and young people from tobacco advertising”, which would in fact lead to a complete ban on advertising in this area. The Federal Council rejected the law in August without a counterproposal. Instead, she wants to toughen the rules of the Tobacco Law.
Hard as a rock, to the point of lack of empathy
In this context, insurance circles fear that the BAG may focus even more on prevention policy under the new leadership and give very little weight to measures to contain costs in the area of benefits. However, her peers caution against Lévy’s too strong ranking based on her past activities: not only is she well-connected in the healthcare sector, she also has a quick grasp and the ability to tackle challenges very analytically. and in all disciplines.
After his time at the BAG, Lévy headed the department of health protection in the canton of Basel-Stadt with the cantonal laboratory, the veterinary office and the institute for forensic medicine as the top positions. During this time, he expressed his fascination with the so-called “One Health” approach in the media, according to which many new diseases can be traced back to increased human-animal contact and thus the health of animals, humans and the environment must be considered holistically. With Corona and other new viruses, this thinking should gain in importance.
The Basel psychiatry directorate with around 1,200 employees is probably the closest thing to Lévy’s new managerial position at the Federal Office of Public Health. Several former employees describe Lévy as very pleasant to deal with, but also tough when necessary, even to the point of being “lacking in empathy.” If this means assertiveness, it would not be a disadvantage for the position at the head of an authority with such divergent tasks: in almost no other industry do different actors lobby as intensely and loudly as in the health sector. Corona also shows that clear and externally perceptible leadership and strategy are a prerequisite for overcoming crisis situations.
During the pandemic, failures in the digitization of the healthcare system in recent years quickly became apparent. When she was elected office director in April, Lévy said that digitization was one of the most urgent tasks of her job. Another question, however, is whether Lévy will be able to give new impulses to lower healthcare costs, which will also rise to the top of the department.
Politically, the ideas of Federal Councilor Alain Berset and Lévy should not be too far apart. However, Berset leads closely and with clear guidelines. Lévy certainly has the ability to tackle unpleasant records, explains a longtime healthcare expert: “But if you challenge Berset too much, you’ll have a hard time too.”
