Ospita’s members provide community-based care
Benjamin Mühlemann, Member of the Council of States, President of Ospita – Swiss Healthcare Companies
“Ospita is a central link in the Swiss healthcare system, acting as an association, a voice for its members and a constructive partner to politicians, the administration and many other stakeholders.
Ospita stands for effective, high-quality and cost-effective care. Our members, the private healthcare providers, are a pillar of the healthcare provision in Switzerland and not merely a supplementary convenience. This approach corresponds not only to the reality on the ground, but also to the logic of the Federal Constitution: the State acts in a complementary role to private initiative, meaning that the private sector takes precedence over the State. Public and private providers together deliver care, in both hospital and outpatient settings, for both compulsory insurance and supplementary benefits. It is the quality of the service that is decisive, not the form of ownership of a hospital.
Private healthcare providers deliver a substantial proportion of care; they are close to patients, specialised and efficient: they offer, in every sense of the word, ‘community-based care’. Our members run acute care clinics, surgical centres, rehabilitation and psychiatric facilities, hospital accident and emergency departments and other specialist units. They reduce waiting times, clearly structure patient pathways and take responsibility for training and professional development, state-of-the-art infrastructure and highly specialised medicine. Efficiency is not an option, but a prerequisite for survival: private institutions operate without any guarantee of deficit coverage, without a safety net and, for the most part, without benefits of general interest, bearing sole responsibility for their investments.
As President, I wish to further reinforce this understanding of the role. Ospita must highlight the contribution that private healthcare providers will make both today and in the future. This is not about parallel structures or increased capacity, but about intelligent interaction within the dual system. Conflicts do not arise from a struggle between public and private institutions, but from misguided systemic incentives. Ospita is committed to fair, competition-neutral framework conditions that allow for cost coverage, in order to reward performance, eliminate misguided incentives and pave the way for innovation.
As President, I consider it my duty to defend this position consistently, in collaboration with the members, the committee and the General Secretariat: through clear, fact-based positions that prioritise dialogue.”
Ospita accounts for:
- 27% of treatment days
- Ospita members help to generate savings in the healthcare sector: their base prices are almost always equivalent to or lower than those of public hospitals.
- Over 37% of all institutions that train doctors are run by the private sector.
- Ospita members account for 23% of highly specialised medical centres.
