Pay more, get less: what's the point?
Many Swiss are now taking a closer look: They pay higher premiums for additional insurance and receive fewer benefits. Even without additional insurance, it is possible that someone lies in a single room and is treated by the head doctor. The reason for the price increases in supplementary insurance is easy to explain. It is mainly about the far too high administrative costs! With normal health insurance, the administrative costs are between 3.6 and 6.4 percent, with supplementary insurance, however, between 12.7 and 20.5 percent. These are additional expenses that have to be recovered through increased premiums. In the meantime, however, customers are paying more and more out of their own pockets and are taking on numerous payments for health services that were previously covered by health insurance. Is it surprising here that the popularity of supplementary insurance is noticeably declining?
Insurers are lagging behind
When the supplementary insurance came into being, it was still about offering the insured real added value. You should be fully covered and also receive additional benefits. But the providers of supplementary insurance have hardly made any improvements, rather they have rather eased. At the same time, however, the insurers for regular health insurance have not been idle and have instead ensured that the range of health services that are covered by basic insurance has continued to grow.
According to an estimate by McKinsey, insurers are simply not ready to offer special services. It is not yet possible to shorten the minimum term of the contracts; no bundles of services can yet be offered. This in turn reduces the interest of the insured in the additional offers. Digitization is also still an obstacle and is setting insurers back. Because: Only a small percentage of insurance policies are taken out directly online, meaning that a large market share is given away.
There are still no complaints
At the moment, it does not appear that insurers have any reason to complain. You have not yet received pressure from the insured and do not have to adjust the supplementary insurance yet. Their business is still profitable. But how much longer? The example of supplementary hospital insurance clearly shows how necessary this insurance is. Because: The public hospitals are upgrading their basic care, because they are in constant competition with one another. People with general insurance get a comprehensive range of services so that it is simply no longer necessary to accept the additional premiums for the semi-private or private supplementary insurance. In addition, there are now many operations that are carried out on an outpatient basis and no longer require a stay in hospital. Then why should additional insurance be taken out for this?
The Swiss are considered lazy to change when it comes to health insurance. This means that they would rather stay with their usual insurance than switch to another provider. The providers of supplementary insurance can still take advantage of this, because although they increase the premiums and do not bring any additional benefits, they can be relatively certain that the insured will not cancel. However, this is not a way of continuing to operate as before. The Swiss could soon run out of patience and with it their financial resources. Then the providers of supplementary insurance have to be prepared for numerous terminations or quickly improve the services offered.
Conclusion: reform of supplementary insurance would be necessary
Supplementary insurance has been neglected by insurers in the past. While basic insurance is constantly being improved, this is not the case with supplementary insurance. However, this means that if the premiums are continually increased and the benefits are not increased at the same time, there is a risk that the insured will terminate the contract. If there is no improvement here, the insurers run the risk of the insured jumping off.
