Two important health insurance companies are merging: Visana and Atupri are merging to form Atusana, which became known this week. The two companies promise that no jobs will be lost as a result of the merger.
But can they really keep that promise? Expert David Roman on possible motives for such mergers and what the funds want to achieve with them.
SRF News: What does such a merger bring?
David Roman: From the buyer’s point of view there are three big reasons: On the one hand you want to secure a leading position. We assume that there will be fewer providers on the market in the future. So you have to position yourself to develop a dominant or large position. This will also be important with regard to regulatory interventions to reduce the number of market participants, keyword: uniform fund.
Geographical presence plays an important role.
The second important reason is geographic presence. Even if you can be a customer of any health insurance company throughout Switzerland in the Swiss healthcare system, many insurance companies have a regional presence. And by taking over another health insurance fund, you can strengthen your market position in a selected canton or region to a certain extent, for example to fill a gap in market coverage or in the branch network.
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Keystone/Christian Beutler
The third point concerns economies of scale. With growing size, there are certain economies of scale in the health insurance market.
In which areas can a larger health insurance company benefit?
Investments in digitization therefore come with great costs. If you can spread these costs over many customers, the costs are less high and weigh less heavily on the internal costs that have to be passed on to the premiums. You get a return on investment quicker because you can apply big investments to a bigger crowd.
When two companies come together, they use synergies. Downsizing is often an issue. Isn’t that also necessarily the case in the field of health insurance?
That can be an issue. The health insurance companies have to pay close attention to their costs. But I think geographic presence is important and you want more volume. This can certainly be a strategic consideration; that one does not necessarily see the costs in the foreground, but the expansion of the presence or the position.
You mentioned the keyword “uniform health insurance fund”. What are your thoughts on this?
For many years there has been a discussion as to whether it makes sense for the various health insurance companies to compete.
Many examples have shown that the standard health insurance funds, which certainly exist in certain areas, are not necessarily better.
It is argued that these changes between health insurance companies in particular eat up a lot of money and ultimately do not lead to added value for the patients. On the other hand, many examples have shown that the uniform health insurance funds, which certainly exist in certain areas, are not necessarily better. They do not have a better offer and are not necessarily cheaper.
Klaus Ammann conducted the interview.