Federal popular initiative "for lower drug prices"
The federal popular initiative “for lower drug prices” was an initiative of the Swiss discounter Denner , which demanded that all drugs approved in Germany , France , Italy and Austria are automatically approved in Switzerland and that health insurances only reimburse the cheapest drugs. It was clearly rejected.
initiative
The initiative was submitted on December 12, 1997 with 127,376 signatures and was voted on March 4, 2001.
The Federal Council and Parliament recommended no to the initiative.
intention
The goal of the referendum was that all drugs approved in Germany, France, Italy and Austria would automatically also be approved in Switzerland and that the health insurance companies would only have to pay for the cheapest drugs. This would have meant that, if cheaper generics exist, the generics would have to be dispensed instead of the original drugs (provided the patient does not pay for the drugs himself). So one wanted to lower the health insurance premiums.
However, since Switzerland has to grant all the others according to the rules of the World Trade Organization ( WTO) which it grants to one WTO member state, the automatic approval of drugs would not only be limited to the 4 countries mentioned in the initiative text, but also to various others Expand countries.
text
The popular initiative had the following wording:
The popular initiative reads, adapted to the Federal Constitution of April 18, 1999:
I
The Federal Constitution is amended as follows:
Art. 117 Para. 3
3 Those in the neighboring states of France, Italy, Germany and Austria with a prescription or over the counter for sale by doctors, Drugs approved by pharmacies, hospitals, drugstores or other shops as original preparations or generics are also approved in the same way with a prescription or without a prescription from doctors, pharmacies, hospitals, drugstores or other shops in Switzerland, without a special permit for Switzerland requirement. If prescription-only or over-the-counter drugs are sold, generics must be sold if they are available or if the patient does not pay for the preparation himself. Insofar as original preparations and generics are to be paid for by the health insurance companies, the cheapest products are to be sold to the patients in accordance with the list of health insurers recognized by the federal government, which is published every year.
II
The transitional provisions of the Federal Constitution are supplemented as follows:
Art. 196 Heading Transitional provisions in
accordance with the Federal Decree of December 18, 1998 on a new Federal Constitution.
Article 197 Transitional provisions following the adoption of the Federal Constitution of April 18, 1999
1. Transitional provision to Art Accident insurance)
Statutory or ordinance provisions that contradict Article 117 paragraph 3 are repealed.
Arguments
Per
Above all, the initiators wanted to achieve lower prices with the initiative. They pointed out that in European low-price countries the drugs cost up to 100% less than in Switzerland.
In order to prevent drugs that have been approved in countries with dubious approval procedures from automatically also being approved in Switzerland, one could, in their opinion, have asked for additional registration:
“The initiators are not only demanding a lower drug price, they also want medical safety to be guaranteed. You do not ignore additional health registration by the Swiss authorities in the event that a country - unlike the OECD countries, for example - does not have an approval procedure that is comparable with Switzerland and that is equivalent. It should also be possible to demand reciprocity from another state. "
Cons
The opponents argued that, due to the WTO agreement, drugs from countries with dubious approval procedures also reached Switzerland without being checked by the Swiss authorities.
In addition, the cheapest drug is often not the best. The initiative would therefore have meant that patients would have had to resort to poorer drugs if they had not paid for them themselves.
poll
The initiative was voted on March 4, 2001. The bill was clearly rejected by the people and the cantons , it was only accepted by 30% of the voters. The popular initiative met with the most approval in the canton of Solothurn with 37.1%; it was most clearly rejected in the cantons of Neuchâtel and Valais with 80% no votes.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Swiss popular initiatives - details on "Lower drug prices". In: www.schweizervolksinitiativen.ch. Archived from the original on August 11, 2016 ; accessed on August 11, 2016 .
- ↑ Federal referendum of March 4, 2001. Federal Statistical Office, archived from the original on August 11, 2016 ; accessed on August 11, 2016 .
- ↑ a b c d e f Explanations of the Federal Council. (PDF) Second template: Popular initiative “for lower drug prices”. Swiss Federal Chancellery, pp. 10–15 , archived from the original on January 12, 2014 ; accessed on August 11, 2016 (Official Voting Booklet).
- ↑ Referendum of March 4, 2001 - popular initiative «for lower drug prices». (XLS) Federal Statistical Office, accessed on August 11, 2016 .