Starting in September 2018, health insurance premiums in excess of 12% of income in the canton of Vaud will be covered by the government. From the beginning of 2019, this percentage will be reduced to 10%, increasing the number of people who qualify and the size of the subsidies, according to the newspaper Le Matin. […]
Halogen light bulbs to be banned in Switzerland
At the beginning of September 2018, Swiss retailers stopped replacing their stocks of nearly all halogen light bulbs. Along with standard incandescent bulbs, which were forced from Swiss shop shelves in 2013, the sale of halogen bulbs will be banned from the end of August 2019. The only halogen bulbs that will remain on sale […]
Swiss healthcare – French and Italian speakers more likely to run to hospital than German-speakers
A recent report by the Swiss Health Observatory (Obsan), presents the number of trips residents made to hospital accident and emergency departments (A&E) in 2016. The number of visits per 1,000 residents varies widely. The average across all of Switzerland was 197. However, in the canton of Appenzell-Innerhodden only 53 per 1,000 of the population […]
Superbugs from New Zealand and Australia infecting Swiss hospitals
Antibiotic resistant gut bacteria, identical to those which have been found in Australia and New Zealand, are being found more frequently in Swiss hospitals according to Switzerland’s Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH). The bacteria vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) are most likely travelling to Switzerland via people who have spent time in these regions. Many carrying […]
Swiss health insurance companies aim to make it easier to break contracts
Swiss health insurance companies are aiming to change laws to make it easier for them to unilaterally end complementary insurance contracts, according to the newspaper Le Matin. Health insurers have managed to get this possibility included in a project aimed at revising Switzerland’s laws on insurance contracts, set for discussion by a parliamentary committee this […]
Accident and emergency patients might soon be charged a pre-treatment fee
The Swiss government is looking hard to find ways to reduce the cost of health care. One idea is to make accident and emergency patients pay a CHF 50 fee before treatment. National counsellor Thomas Weibel put forward a parliamentary initiative to levy a CHF 50 charge at the time of hospital admission. The measure […]
Sales of glyphosate down by nearly a third in Switzerland
Sales of the controversial synthetic herbicide glyphosate dropped by 31% in the two years from 2014, according to Switzerland’s Federal Office for Agriculture (FOAG). In 2014, 296 tonnes of the chemical were sold in Switzerland. By 2016, sales had fallen to 204 tonnes, a 31% fall. FOAG attributes some of this decline to increased mechanical […]
Rising psychiatric admissions in Switzerland linked to Netflix series
Around 40 young people have been admitted to a psychiatric clinic in Zurich after watching the controversial Netflix television series 13 Reasons Why, according to RTS. The series, launched in March 2017, tells the fictional story of a 17 year old who leaves behind recordings explaining why she took her own life. Zurich hospital says […]
Swiss government puts prizes in condoms
This week, Switzerland’s Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) launched a condom lottery to promote condom use under the slogan: Go out covered and win. Around 400,000 free condoms, which will be handed out over summer at pools, clubs and concerts, will contain a code. These codes can be entered into a website. Some codes […]
Swiss meat consumption three times too high, according to new guidelines
On average, people in Switzerland eat 110g of meat every day. New Swiss guidelines suggest eating a third of this amount – an average American eats around 270g of meat a day. The new Swiss guidelines also recommend eating far fewer sugary and salty snacks and sugary and alcoholic drinks. On average four portions of […]
