Page 66 - Bulletin, Vol.81 No.2, December 2022

THE IMPACT OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

By Christian PAULETTO

One of the many questions that is attracting attention is the impact of the pandemic on
the cost of health care. The reason for this question: The reason is that it is not just a
question of who paid how much, for the sake of knowing, for the sake of doing so.

Having an accurate idea of the cost can be a valuable piece of information in case the
world is faced with a pandemic again. It is also a valuable parameter in the debate on
how much is worth investing in preventing the next pandemic. In addition, a persistent
issue for the Swiss is the high cost of premiums for compulsory health insurance.

The COVID-19 episode highlighted the problem of the financial reserves accumulated
by private health insurers, which led the federal authorities to act.

Since 2021, the Swiss Federal Council (the government) has been controlling the costs
incurred by the national health system as a result of COVID-19. The impetus for this
came from the Swiss Parliament.
As in all parliamentary systems, members of parliament or a parliamentary committee
can ask the government to submit reports on any relevant policy issue. In Switzerland,
this is called a "postulate".
Switzerland. In April 2020, the Committee for Social Security and Public Health of the
Council of States (the Swiss Upper House) submitted a postulate asking the
government to draw up a report on "the consequences of the pandemic on health
costs". In June 2021, the Federal Council presented a first short, purely qualitative
report. Last June, it presented a second report with quantitative estimates. The final
report is scheduled for 2023.

The case is interesting for those who want to understand it better.
Switzerland is a federal country, where competences are often shared between the
federal and cantonal (sub-federal) levels.

In the case of health, the competences for health-related measures are shared, as are
the related costs. Moreover, the Swiss social security system is based on cost sharing
between private insurers and their patients.
A collateral effect of this complex system is, in this case, a number of transfer payments
between actors. These aspects make it difficult, but also insightful, to estimate who paid
how much and for what.

As mentioned, the paying agents (paying agents) are the Confederation (central
government), the cantons, the insurers, and the insured. Jumping to conclusions,
currently available estimates show that the main cost categories have increased in 2021
compared to 2020. The total costs for both years reached 5.6 billion Swiss francs.

The lion's share of the cost to the Confederation of the COVID-19 tests in 2021.

Confederation, i.e. 2.3 billion francs. This was despite the fact that some tests had to be
paid for by the people, especially at the beginning of the pandemic (until the end of June

64 AAFI-AFICS BULLETIN, Vol. 81 No. 2, 2022-12