Key facts
The Swiss Federal Audit Office (SFAO) audited the factors impacting healthcare costs at federal asylum centres. In 2023, healthcare expenditure amounted to CHF 65.5 million, or around 14% of the federal asylum centres’ total costs (CHF 461 million). This figure covers nursing staff, insurance premiums, treatments not covered by health insurance and healthcare-related operating costs. The State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) manages this expenditure for all centres. It concludes the insurance contracts, finances the medical treatments and supervises the service providers retained to perform day-to-day management.
The audit showed that the SEM has a sound framework for ensuring access to healthcare, but that it is still too dependent on its health insurer and does not have reliable tools for managing costs and assessing the effectiveness of its decisions. The SFAO recommends that the SEM improve the quality of its data in order to better defend its interests vis-à-vis the insurance providers, and to more effectively monitor healthcare costs. The distribution throughout the federal asylum centres of tried and tested approaches to organising treatments and cost management will also strengthen control over healthcare costs.