This week, Bern decided patients who turn up at accident-and-emergency units with trivial complaints should not face extra charges, reported RTS. On Wednesday it rejected a parliamentary proposal to let cantons impose a levy on such visits, arguing it would add bureaucracy without easing pressure on hospitals.
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The idea came from Thomas Weibel, a former Green Liberal MP, and was taken up by the parliamentary health committee. The scheme would have allowed cantons to add CHF 50 to patients’ annual cost-sharing bill for each visit to casualty, unless they were referred by a doctor, a telemedicine service or a pharmacist. Pregnant women and under-18s would have been exempt.
The government accepts the aim of reducing unnecessary demand but doubts the plan would work. Emergency units are often the only access point to medical care, especially at night, at weekends and in rural areas where family doctors are scarce. Rather than punitive charges, Bern prefers more targeted information campaigns to steer people elsewhere.
It also cites cost. The levy would create fresh administrative work for cantons, insurers and hospitals. Cantons would have to monitor implementation, run awareness drives and sort out liability questions. Insurers would need to check, case by case, whether a patient lived in a canton applying the levy and whether a valid referral existed. Hospitals would have to verify paperwork. All this, ministers argue, would generate disproportionate overheads for questionable benefits.
The proposal has drawn fire not just from the federal council. In the consultation round, cantons, parties and professional associations also opposed it for the same reasons. The government says medical staff should be treating patients, not shuffling forms.
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RTS article (in French) – Take a 5 minute French test now
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