Background Twenty nine years ago, the Swiss health sector faced two key problems: rising inequality and rising costs. Both problems resulted from the rise of for-profit insurance companies. Traditionally, the Swiss bought into private insurance plans through their employers. Because these insurers were not selective about whom they covered, very nearly all employed people had… Continue reading Switzerland’s health insurance market
Tag: health insurance
Obesity in Switzerland
More than a billion people are living with obesity around the world, global estimates published in The Lancet show[1]Worldwide trends in underweight and obesity from 1990 to 2022: a pooled analysis of 3663 population-representative studies with 222 million children, adolescents, and adults[2]More than one billion people are living with obesity. The international team of scientists… Continue reading Obesity in Switzerland
Stealing hope
A.L.S is a death sentence. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is a fatal type of motor neuron disease. It is characterized by progressive degeneration of nerve cells in the spinal cord and brain. It’s often called Lou Gehrig’s disease, after a famous baseball player who died from it[1]Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). The muscles don’t get nutrition, and… Continue reading Stealing hope
Corporate small print trickery
In 1994, I was tasked with calculating the solvency of the Lloyds Insurance Market. It’s a requirement of the act[1]Lloyd’s Acts that covers the Market, and usually it was just a formality. In that year it mattered. There was a very real concern that the Market was insolvent. The Lloyds Insurance Market is complex, made… Continue reading Corporate small print trickery
Buying votes
In August 2005, Raghuram Rajan, at the time a virtually unknown economist at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, predicted the financial crisis[1]Larry Summers vs. the long-termers. He was at a conference of high-powered economists who had convened in part to honor Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan. Larry Summers[2]Served as 71st United States… Continue reading Buying votes
Hungerstreik
Die Gesundheitsversorgung in der Schweiz kostet heute mehr als 11.000 US-Dollar pro Person und Jahr und ist damit die teuerste der Welt. Gemäss KVG, dem Krankenpflege- und Krankenversicherungsgesetz, ist die Versicherung obligatorisch, und die Ärmsten werden vom Wohnkanton subventioniert. Abgesehen davon, dass es eine Lücke zwischen dem Gesetz und der Praxis gibt. Ich falle in… Continue reading Hungerstreik
Grève de la faim
Les soins de santé en Suisse coûtent désormais plus de 11 000 dollars par personne et par an, ce qui en fait les plus chers au monde. Dans le cadre de la LAMal, la législation sur les soins de santé et l’assurance-maladie, l’assurance est obligatoire et les plus pauvres sont subventionnés par le canton dans… Continue reading Grève de la faim
Hunger strike
Healthcare in Switzerland now costs in excess of US$11,000 per person per annum, making it the world’s most expensive. Under the LAMal, the legislation covering healthcare and healthcare insurance, insurance is mandatory, and the poorest are subsidised by the canton in which they live. Except that there is a gap between the law and the… Continue reading Hunger strike
Why Insurance wastes money
Insurance is big business. It makes huge amounts of money. And it wastes money. At $5.23 trillion[1]Gross premiums written by the insurance industry worldwide 2000 to 2020, if it were a country, the insurance industry would be the world’s third largest economy. The arithmetic of how insurance works needs explaining. Insurance is a form of… Continue reading Why Insurance wastes money
Letter to the Swiss Federal Parliament
I have regularly expressed my concerns over the unsustainable rise in the cost of health insurance in Switzerland. One of my first articles was about Switzerland’s healthcare problem. So I wrote a letter to our members of parliament. Each letter was personally addressed to the recipient. This is what it said: The cost of health… Continue reading Letter to the Swiss Federal Parliament