Swiss voters reject two health insurance initiatives

Following the recommendation of their government, Swiss voters turned down on Sunday two proposals seeking to cut the cost of health insurance.

The initiatve calling for premiums to be capped at 10 percent of income was rejected by 55.5 percent of voters, while 62.8 said ‘ no’ to the one seeking to provide a ‘brake’ on health costs.

“The Swiss understood that the ‘10-percent initiative’ was misleading,” business association Economiesuisse said in a press release on Sunday after the results were published. 

With the ‘no’ vote, “billions of francs in additional costs will be avoided,” the group added.

The “physical integrity” initiative was also tuned down — by 73.7 percent of the voting public.

The only proposal that won the voters approval (68.7 percent) was  the one that will allow Switzerland to rapidly produce more electricity from renewable energy sources such as water, sun, wind, and biomass. 

READ ALSO: Swiss approve law to speed up renewable energy but reject health initiatives 

Meanwhile in Geneva…

In a cantonal referendum, also on Sunday, 61 percent of Geneva voters refused to grant extended political rights to foreigners living in their midst — that is, to  let them cast their votes in cantonal referendums and run for elective offices on a cantonal level.
 
However, 84.7 percent of voters were in favour of another cantonal proposal: to ban “the exhibition or wearing of symbols, emblems and any other object of hatred, particularly Nazi, in public spaces.” 

Switzerland has a new mountain tunnel

On Saturday, Transport Minister Albert Rösti inaugurated, after 10 years of construction, the 5.8-km-long Albula Tunnel connecting municipalities of Preda and Spinas in canton Graubünden.

From Sunday, trains will run at 120 kilometers per hour through the new tunnel.

This throughway is actually the second tunnel in this particular location; the original one, opened in 1903 and designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site, was in poor condition and no longer deemed safe to use. 

Long disruption in train travel between Switzerland and Italy begins

If you planning to go south of the border by train for your summer vacation, don’t expect a smooth ride.

From Saturday and a for at least three months, the train service between Italian cities of Domodossola and Milan will be interrupted due to railway works, also disrupting travel between western Switzerland and Italy.

To make it easier for people from Switzerland to reach Italy during the peak summer travel period, Swiss national rail company SBB is considering setting up direct buses from Geneva and Lausanne to Milan via the Grand Saint-Bernard tunnel.

“We are planning around three buses in each direction every day,” the company said. 

READ ALSO: Why you should not rely on trains to and from Switzerland this summer 

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