BAG strokes funds for prevention

Movement and a healthy lifestyle not only lead to better well -being, they prevent the most common social diseases. Now the administration is choking a pioneering project. Sports doctor Arno Schmidt-Trucksäss explains why the decision is a « disaster ».

Neuchâtel is breaking new ground: Instead of medication, general practitioners can prescribe museum visits. The intention behind it is to encourage people to move more. Because the evidence has long been provided: If you don’t move, you have a higher risk of non -transferable diseases.

Consequences such as obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases are expensive in treatment: 80 percent of health costs in Switzerland are the account of the non-transferable diseases. A healthy lifestyle can prevent or at least delay them.

That is why various states have launched initiatives to increase physical activity. Switzerland itself took several attempts for state health promotion. The last 2012: The Parliament negotiated the prevention law, but did not speak the necessary money. Two votes were missing in the Council of States.

BAG savings program meet prevention

On the small scale, the Federal Office of Health (BAG) has nevertheless built up competencies in prevention. The budget of the corresponding department is currently around CHF 8.6 million per year. But not for long: The BAG has a savings order from the Federal Council and Parliament for 2026 Get: CHF 11 million the budget is shortened.

The health authority also wants to save on prevention. For 2026, expenditure of CHF 7.5 million are still budgeted, CHF 1.15 million less. Specifically, the BAG withdraws from two projects: the Self platform is about enabling chronically ill people to help themselves better. The second project is the “Exercise is Medicine” (EIM) platform. She wants to make people with risk of illness to move more.

Resistance from prevention medicine

The savings decision is met with resistance. Prevention doctors consider the sign to be fatal. The Special Society Sport & Exercise Medicine Switzerland (SEMS) assesses the procedure as a « serious step back » in Swiss health policy: « fundamentally contradicts scientific knowledge, economic reason and the socio -political obligations of the federal government ».

On request, the BAG regrets that he can no longer continue various tasks in prevention. However, the office had to prioritize the expenditure “due to the high saving pressure”. In the future, the BAG will focus more on priority issues such as child and youth health or mental health.

Arno Schmidt-Trucksäss does not accept this argument. The professor of sports medicine has accompanied the “Exercise IS Medicine” project for years. In order not to choke the progress, he turns to BAG director Anne Lévy in an open letter.

For this newspaper, he classifies the consequences of the decision.

Mr. Schmidt-Trucksäss, you have written an open letter to BAG director Anne Lévy, in which you criticize the savings measures in the area of ​​prevention. How come?

Arno Schmidt-Trucksäss: The procedure is a disaster. With an aging population, it is essential to operate prevention because we can demonstrably counteract the cost pressure. Prevention not only leads to savings in the health sector, but also to a better well -being of the population.