Premiums for 2024

When healthcare costs rise, premiums also rise:

• Increasing costs per person: The figures recorded by CSS show that the expenditure per insured person is more or less trending upwards in all areas. The costs of both outpatient and inpatient hospital care are rising. Spending on aids, physiotherapy, rehab and doctors’ fees is also going up.
• Expensive medication: Analyses conducted by CSS show that the amounts spent on medication are also rising unchecked. This is particularly true of highly expensive medication-based therapies, where annual costs are now in excess of CHF 50,000 per person. Spending here more than doubled in the period from 2017 to 2021, presenting CSS with over CHF 500 million in additional costs. The trend towards highly priced medication is continuing, with the associated costs also continuing to grow unchecked.
  

As every franc spent on healthcare must be covered by a franc of premium income, it is clear that the premium burden will continue to increase.

The change in premiums becomes particularly noticeable on reaching a new tariff age group: as a result, the premium for young adults born in 2005 may be significantly higher. This is because the lower children’s premium now ceases to apply when they turn 19. The same applies to adults born in 1998, who now no longer qualify for the lower young adult premium.

CSS is working at a number of different levels to try and contain the premium burden for insured persons. It advocates on the political stage, offers health-related programmes and provides support to people in difficult health situations.

Checking invoices: In addition, checking bills is one of the most efficient tools when it comes to reining in unjustified expenditure. CSS checks more than 25 million invoices a year, thus saving around CHF 700 million. CSS has also been successful in tackling insurance fraud. It uncovered 233 cases in 2022 and reclaimed CHF 31 million in benefits.