Cost targets and cost containment measures
Per capita healthcare costs continue to rise at rates that by far outstrip the cost of living and wage growth. As a result, an increasing number of insured persons find themselves struggling to pay their monthly premiums. At the same time, many cantons are increasingly withdrawing from the premium reduction system in an attempt to make savings.
That is why CSS welcomes the ongoing intense discussion, first launched several years ago, on suitable measures for reining in costs within the mandatory healthcare insurance (OKP) system. To this end, CSS has primarily given its active support to the introduction of uniform financing, the revision of central tariff structures and the further spread of digitally supported, integrated care. These three key reforms could be accompanied by further measures from the Federal Council's cost-containment packages, such as the right of health insurers to appeal against hospital planning (package 1b), and the introduction of cost impact models for high-volume medicines (package 2). However, further measures to curb costs remain necessary in other areas, e.g. better management of the OKP benefit catalogue and more consistent implementation of the WZW criteria.
Reinforcing this, CSS supports the introduction of cost and quality targets in the healthcare sector as set out in the adopted counter-proposal to the cost-containment initiative. This requires the Federal Council to set targets every four years for the maximum growth in OKP costs. A commission will monitor the development of these costs and make recommendations on suitable corrective action. The consultation procedure on implementation of the counter-proposal is scheduled for the first half of 2025.
At the end of 2024, the Federal Council launched a round table on cost containment in which various actors from the healthcare sector take part. The forum meets twice a year with the goal of jointly developing specific measures to rein in costs. At the first meeting, its members agreed to make savings of around CHF 300 million a year from 2026. CSS welcomes the initiative's intention to identify broad-based, effective measures capable of reining in costs.
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