Healthcare costs will continue to rise next year, Health Minister Alain Berset has warned. Health insurers estimate that costs in 2024 will be higher than in the past, he added.

This year’s healthcare costs have already been higher than expected, Berset pointed out in an interview with Tamedia newspapers on Friday. Health insurers also lost CHF1.8 billion ($2 billion) on the financial markets last year, he added.

“It’s all going in the wrong direction,” said Berset, who will be leaving the government at the end of the year.

Health insurers have talked about an 8-9% rise in premiums for 2024.

He criticised the cantons and interest groups active in the healthcare sector for “helping each other to prevent cost-cutting reforms”. “Everyone is defending their share of the CHF45 billion cake,” he said. He also believes that the differences between cantonal subsidies aimed at reducing premiums are too great.

The government has only limited room for manoeuvre when it comes to healthcare, as it is a matter for the cantons to decide. The Covid pandemic has led to extraordinary costs, and insurers’ losses in 2022 have reduced reserves, he added.

As for Zurich Health Minister Natalie Rickli’s proposal to abolish compulsory health insurance, Berset is firmly opposed to it. “If we abolished it, we would have two-tier medicine,” he said.