Bosses should earn a maximum of 250,000 francs

The Social Committee of the National Council wants to cap the salaries on the executive floors of compulsory health insurance.

Thomas Aeschi, member of the Social Committee of the National Council, is in favor of a cap on wages in the executive suite of health insurance companies.

Alessandro Della Valle / Keystone

Can it be that the highest paid heads of health insurance companies in Switzerland earn 500,000 to 800,000 francs a year? The Social Committee of the National Council now appears to have vetoed the status quo. According to a statement on Friday, it passed a motion by a vote of 16 to 9 for a cap on annual payments in compulsory health insurance. In future, members of the Executive Board should earn a maximum of 250,000 francs including fringe benefits and members of the Board of Directors no more than 50,000 francs.

The initiative of the commission received a clear majority, because in addition to the left, the representatives of the SVP also voted for it. It cannot be that one now wants to spend more than 2 billion Swiss francs of taxpayers’ money for the expansion of premium reductions, but at the same time far excessive salaries are paid on the executive floors, says Zug SVP national councilor Thomas Aeschi, member of the social commission and head of the SVP federal parliamentarian. But why a wage cap for the health insurance companies, which are formally private companies, and not for all other private companies? Aeschi’s answer: This is about social health insurance, which is compulsory and where there is no free market.

split possible

At first glance, the move to the top floors of the largest funds would lead to sharp wage cuts. An example is the Helsana Group, which in the past has often been at the top of the industry rankings when it comes to executive pay. According to the Helsana Group’s 2021 annual report, the total remuneration for the CEO was almost 647,000 francs, well above the maximum that the National Council’s social commission wants to see in the future. The same applies to the Helsana Board of Directors. Its president received almost 325,000 francs for 2021, more than six times the maximum desired by the National Council Commission.

However, the Commission’s initiative refers “only” to compulsory health insurance. Many health insurance companies are active in both compulsory and supplementary insurance at the same time and also issue separate invoices. According to information from the Commission, it seems possible that members of the executive board of health insurance groups can earn far more than 250,000 francs even under the desired wage cap – as long as the legal entity responsible for basic insurance does not post any remuneration above this mark at the expense of the premium payer.

According to its own statements, Helsana has so far only reported wages at the level of the entire group and has not broken them down into the areas of basic insurance and supplementary insurance in communication with the authorities. However, for internal operating accounting, one would expect central group costs to be divided among the individual business units according to a certain key.

The whole thing will still have to be discussed. The motion now comes first to the National Council. If she manages this hurdle, the Council of States will deal with it afterwards. This is sometimes a little less prone to populist attacks than the National Council and could therefore represent a higher hurdle.

The second track

The majority of the National Council’s social commission wants to take a two-pronged approach. In addition to the aforementioned motion, she also supported a parliamentary initiative on the subject of wage caps in basic health insurance with a casting vote by the President. However, the text of the initiative does not give any specific figures, but instead demands that the Federal Council set a maximum amount for board members and members of the management of health insurers who work in basic insurance. In contrast to motions, the text of parliamentary initiatives should not be weighed in the first phase.

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