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The prejudice persists: Health insurance premiums could be lower if insurance companies worked more efficiently and kept their administrative costs low. Wrong, says Felix Schneuwly (59) of the comparison service Comparis: “Administrative costs are not a factor driving the increase in the premium.”
This is shown in the following Comparis comparison: While administrative costs increased by an average of only 1 percent between 2017 and 2019, costs for insured medical services increased by 4 percent in the same period.
However: The differences in administration costs are huge! The Lucerne Hinterland health insurance company is the most efficient with administrative costs of 99 francs per customer in 2019, while the Ingenbohl health insurance company is the most inefficient at CHF 573.
Cheap Assura, but on the bottom in terms of efficiency
A good example of decoupling administrative costs and premium increases is the cheap Assura, which generally offers the cheapest premiums, but does poorly in terms of customer satisfaction or efficiency. Assura spends 152 francs per year and per client on administration, which is worse than other large funds. For example, CSS does better (138 francs), while Helsana, for example, does worse (238 francs).
Higher administrative costs, for example because the cash register looks closely, can be worth it: “The more invoices to check and the more complicated, the greater the control effort. Coupled with more and more regulatory requirements, this is increasing administrative costs. Part of this can be offset by efficiency gains from digitization, ”explains Schneuwly.
The summary of the best 25 percent of health insurers of 2019 in terms of efficiency:
Here are the three most efficient health insurance companies in Switzerland: The winner is the Lucerne Hinterland health insurance company with administrative costs of CHF 99 per customer. In second place is the Valais Sodalis health group with 109 francs. The bronze medal also went to Valais, that is, to the Visperterminen health insurance company with 111 francs.
