The CSS Institute is dedicated to empirical basic research in five key areas of health economics. Below, you can also find easy-to-understand summaries of our scientific papers.
Between 2012 and 2021, annual basic insurance costs per person increased by 579 Swiss francs. The often-cited aging of society is overestimated as a factor. Instead, the costs per interaction with the healthcare system have grown significantly.
What are the economic, social and health consequences of cost sharing during pregnancy, and how much will costs increase if this cost sharing is discontinued? Answers to these questions enable the targeted use of cost sharing as a control instrument in the healthcare system.
Does the demand for medical services change when their price fluctuates over time? Do people adjust the timing of their utilization to minimize out-of-pocket expenses? Answering these questions is crucial for assessing the impact of cost-sharing policies.
Generics offer the same effect as the original medication at a fraction of the price. Despite financial incentives, many patients continue to opt for more expensive original preparations. Can targeted patient information facilitate the switch to generics?
Does not only the current cost-sharing but also future expectations influence the demand for healthcare services? Since the utilisation of the healthcare system depends on this, the design of cost-sharing models should take these factors into account.
Can healthcare costs be reduced through the use of market mechanisms? Using the differentiated co-payment for expensive drugs, we can analyse the reactions of producers and patients to such measures.
The number of GPs is steadily decreasing due to increasing retirements and a shortage of new recruits. What happens to the patients who therefore have to find a new provider?
In Switzerland, the state helps around a quarter of the population to pay their health insurance premiums so that people on lower incomes can also bear this financial burden. But how should this support be organised in order to help as effectively as possible?
The majority of German-speaking cantons in Switzerland allow doctors to dispense medicines directly to their patients. As this practice is not uncontroversial, we analysed the impact of self-dispensing on medication costs.
In research, the administrative costs of health insurance are often neglected. However, our analysis shows that chronic illnesses lead to significantly more contacts with health insurance companies.
