Health insurers to face closer scrutiny
The cabinet has agreed proposals to increase state supervision of health insurance companies and to smooth out regional differences in premium payments.
Interior Minister Alain Berset, who is also in charge of health matters, hailed the plan as a good compromise aimed at boosting transparency and providing better protection of insurers and clients.
The proposals – which are subject to approval by parliament – foresee a bigger role for the Federal Health Office in supervising insurance companies and in ordering changes in annual premiums.
The cabinet also presented a method to partly even out financial inequalities totaling SFr1 billion ($1.1 billion) among clients of health insurance companies in different cantons.
The bill, which was presented on Thursday, is the latest in a series of health insurance system reforms begun more than ten years ago.
Voters will have the final word in June on the planned introduction of a system of managed care that would promote networks of doctors to reduce increasing health care costs.
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