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REFERENDUMS IN SWITZERLAND

Voters favour lower universal TV-radio fee

Swiss voters on Sunday narrowly backed a proposal to reduce the annual radio and TV licence fee paid by households.

Published: 14 June 2015 18:50 CEST
Voters favour lower universal TV-radio fee
Map showing radio-TV licence fee vote by canton. Image SRF

Just over 50 percent of the electorate backed cutting the fee from 451 to 400 francs, with strongest support for the reduction coming from French-speaking Switzerland and the canton of Graubünden.

Most voters in a majority of German-language cantons voted against the reduced fee, along with those in Italian-speaking Ticino. 

The change to federal law on television and radio makes the fee payable by all households, whether or not they have TVs and radios, as well as by large companies.

The legislation aims to reflect the fact many households listen to radio and watch TV on devices such as laptop computers, tablets and smartphones.

People receiving social assistance and residents of group homes will be exempt from the licence fee.

Companies with sales under 500,000 francs will also be exempt from the fee, which it is to take effect in 2018.

Fewer than 4,000 votes separated the yes and no votes in the referendum, with the outcome not immediately evident.

“It has become a Hitchcock thriller,” Communications Minister Doris Leuthard, a proponent of the change told media, as the results came in.

She thanked “yes” voters, saying the change is “positive for three million households”.

Most of the 1.3 billion francs raised annually by the TV and radio licence goes to help finance the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SSR) and “public service” broadcasters.

Among other decisions made in national referendums on Sunday, voters soundly rejected a proposed 20 percent national inheritance tax on large estates and legacies.

More than 70 percent of those casting ballots voted against the tax, which would have applied to estates valued at 2.5 million francs or more.

The proposal was backed by left-wing parties as a means to finance the social insurance system.

Cantons and municipalities already levy taxes on inheritance, raising around 900 million francs a year.  

The people also voted 72.5 percent against a popular initiative for a standardized national system of student bursaries to replace ones currently providing by the cantons that differ from one part of the country to the other.

 

 

 

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HEALTH INSURANCE

How Switzerland’s two crucial health insurance referendums could impact you

The price of Swiss health insurance premiums has been rising significantly in the past few years, prompting political parties to launch two cost-cutting initiatives. The votes will take place in June and there's a lot at stake.

Published: 24 April 2024 15:33 CEST
Updated: 28 April 2024 08:44 CEST
How Switzerland's two crucial health insurance referendums could impact you

On June 9th, the Swiss will cast their votes on two issues aiming, though in different ways, to curb the continually increasing cost of the obligatory health insurance (KVG / LaMal).

This is what’s at stake.

The ’10-percent’ initiative

In view of the high (and rising) premiums and other costs of living, which eat up a big chunk of the budgets of low- and middle-income consumers, the Social Democratic Party has spearheaded a national vote to cap the insurance rates at 10 percent of income.

Anything over this limit should be paid for by the federal and cantonal government, the party says.

While this strategy may sound enticing to everyone tired of paying high premiums, the government warns that while this proposal looks good on paper, the ‘yes’ vote could unleash some serious consequences.

Its main argument is that this measure would cost several billion francs per year, and does not provide any incentives to control health costs.

Instead, the Federal Council and the parliament have concocted their own ‘counter initiative’ that they want voters to approve.

Under this proposal, cantons will have to increase the amount of financial help they pay toward health premiums for low-income people. 

READ ALSO: How do I apply for health insurance benefits in Switzerland?

‘For Lower Premiums’ initiative

For its part, the Centre party has come up with its own proposal to reduce health insurance costs, which will also be voted on June 9th.

It provides for a ‘brake’ on health costs, which should evolve according to the economy and wages.

This brake would work in the same way as the federal spending brake. Therefore, when healthcare costs exceed wages for a given year by 20 percent, the government must take action to bring the  costs down.

The government is asking voters to turn down the Centre’s proposal because it doesn’t take into account factors such as demography, technological progress in healthcare, as well as the dependence of salaries on economic developments.

Here too, the Federal Council and parliament have put out their own counter-project, providing for more targeted measures, including specific cost control objectives for healthcare services.

Are there any other proposals on the table aiming to curb the cost of insurance premiums?

Yes.

While they are not on the ballot, two ideas have been debated in past months.

One calls for scrapping multiple private carriers  in favour of a government-run single health insurance scheme, similar to that in the EU. 

The other idea floating around is to replace the current system where rates are determined by factors such as age and canton of residence, and base them on wages instead. 

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