Municipalities because of high costs on the abyss
Municipalities on the abyss: Costs for the care of relatives are running out of hand
Relatives in the canton of Zurich pay around CHF 40,000 on average for a person in need of care. Not only the premium payers finance this. The municipalities and cantons are also increasingly warning of additional pollution from taxes.
The meaningfulness is not up for discussion. The system causes problems because it is susceptible to abuse: relatives sometimes earn more than trained specialists. In addition, the billed costs cannot be fully understood. At the same time, the accusation towards private nursing organizations is hardening to enrich themselves with private basic care.
Expenses to basic care increase disproportionately
The financial flows cannot be measured exactly because neither health insurance companies nor municipalities and cantons see whether basic care was provided by a specialist or a relative. It is clear that more and more lay people can be made by private Spitex organizations in order to assert care costs. It is also clear that they are disproportionately billed – and thus drive up the costs.
This is reflected in the latest figures: the expenses for Spitex grew by 7 percent in one year in 2023. According to the Federal Office of Statistics, it is the « strongest growth of the past decade ». To attribute this alone to the aging population would be wrong. From 2018 to 2023 the number of private providers increased from 299 to 447. The number of public Spitex operators, on the other hand, is slightly declining.
If you crush the numbers, it can also be seen that the treatment costs are more than twice as high in the area of basic care if they are made by a family member. In the case of non-profit-oriented Spitex organizations, care costs CHF 9818 per client every year. In the case of private Spitex organizations, the costs amount to CHF 20,227 a year, as the latest figures from the Spitex Association Zurich show.
Almost CHF 40,000 for basic care alone
This has taken the trouble to examine the services of the companies that primarily take care of relatives. They show CHF 38,153 per client every year. This is money that significantly co -financed the population through health insurance premiums and taxes. According to official figures, the largest private provider generated a profit of CHF 1.25 million in 2022. According to industry experts, profits have multiplied. However, there are no more recent numbers.
Spitex managing director Claudia Schade finds the development kicking. The Spitex Association Canton Zurich regularly receives calls from interested parties from home and abroad how to generate high profits with relatives care. « It’s not about winnings at all, » says Claudia Schade. « It is about the best possible way to compensate the people to be cared for and to adequately compensate for relatives if they have to reduce their gainful employment. »
It therefore requires a quick approach to the national level to protect the nursing profession in order to protect caring relatives and to prevent abuse. The parliament recognized the need for action, GLP National Councilor Patrick Häß has submitted several advances for clearer rules.
A few cases are driving communities to the limit
Until new rules are established, a lot of money still flows into the nursing economy. This not only alerts the health insurance companies with Cost of around CHF 100 million solely due to the care of relatives calculate.
Because nursing finance in many German -speaking cantons is the task of the community, their budgets are now under enormous pressure. This is an example in the Aargau municipality of Möriken-Wildegg, where around CHF 110,000 in the past year in the past year. This almost corresponds to a tax footprint of the municipality. For comparison: In 2020, Möriken-Wildegg has little expenses for relatives care.
« A few cases of relatives care can bring the finances of a small community completely out of balance, » says Ms. parishman Jeanine Glarner (FDP). It expects costs for the municipality of CHF 20,000 to CHF 30,000 per year and case. And it fears a further increase because new caring relatives are so aggressive.
At the same time, Glarner also feels the support of other municipalities who have not yet had the topic on the list of priorities. She knows: « Now the nursing costs are correct. » All communities now felt this with new nursing cases. Therefore, she recently submitted a initiative with which she a further reduction in care tariffs for relatives. At the beginning of the year, the canton of Aargau reduced the revenue by CHF 10 per hour. Similar efforts run in other cantons, such as in Zurich, Basel landscape or Lucerne.
The canton of Thurgau goes one step further. According to the information from the health directorate, the Canton 2023 spent around CHF 1.5 million in costs for caring relatives. If the costs are not spent on nursing services, there would be a « misuse of taxpayers ». The canton of Thurgau therefore checks reclaims to private organizations.
The direction is clear: caring relatives should be removed if they do without gainful employment. But the profits at the expense of tax and premium payers should disappear.
