Pro Life (association)

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Pro Life is an association registered in the commercial register of the Canton of Bern on December 18, 1989, with its registered office in Bern , which operates a commercial business that is not for profit. The goals of the association, which has over 50,000 members, include "all efforts to protect and preserve human life, in all phases from conception to natural death". The association receives a power of attorney from its members to conclude a contract in accordance with the Health Insurance Act and some additional insurance policies. In return, the members undertake to forego some of the statutory health insurance benefits. This includes in particular the termination of pregnancy . Since this service is required by law in Switzerland, it can still be used - but with the consequence that membership expires.

history

The initiative for the establishment came from Gerd Josef Weisensee , who in 1989 was a member of the management of the association data center of the Swiss health insurance companies. According to his own account, he learned there that abortions led to a flood of follow-up treatments for the women concerned and that, from a financial point of view, the abortions are much more expensive than childbirth. Together with other members of the Swiss foundation Yes to Life , which is part of the right to life movement , the idea was developed to set up a health insurance company that does not support abortions and should therefore be in a much better financial position. One of the early supporters was Fritz Zaugg, the then chairman of the board of the newly founded health insurance company Evidenzia .

The association was founded by nine members on December 18, 1989 in Bern. The first co-presidents were the Bernese National Councilor Otto Zwygart from the EPP and Marie-Laure Beck, former President of the Grand Council of the Canton of Geneva and a leading member of the CVP . The management was transferred to Weisensee. Evidenzia served as the first health insurance partner .

When Zwygart was elected central president of the EPP in 1993 and therefore gave up his office as co-president in 1993, Ueli Maurer of the SVP succeeded him. However, Maurer only remained in office for a year and a half, since he gave up office in 1996 after being elected President of the SVP. His successor as Co-President was Werner O. Ciocarelli , former Zurich Cantonal Councilor of the CVP and member of the Baloise management .

When Evidenzia merged with other health insurance companies to form Visana in 1996 , the Bern health insurance company KUKO was won as a partner instead. The connection with KUKO, however, turned out to be less than happy, as, according to Pro Life, it no longer respected the waiver of benefits, sent brochures to members without coordination and actively promoted further insurance offers. Pro Life then looked for a new partner and found one in the personal health insurance fund of the municipal employees in Zurich (PKK, later renamed Panorama), which agreed to take over all members without a new health check on January 1, 1997.

Beck, who had taken care of Pro Life's activities in French-speaking Switzerland in particular, resigned in 1999. Marguerite Ladner was her successor. She was already vice-president of the organization Insieme , which works for the rights of the mentally handicapped. In 2000, Pius Stössel was won as the new co-president to succeed Ciocarelli. Stössel was already active in the Yes to Life movement and brought with him experience as a former administrative director of the cantonal hospital in Uznach .

The health insurance partner Panorama (formerly PKK) got into financial difficulties and informed its customers at the end of April 2003 that they would increase their premiums considerably - according to information from some insured parties, up to 28 percent. As a result, Pro Life terminated the 29,000 health insurance contracts of its members, causing Panorama to lose almost half of its total of 65,000 customers. As a new partner, sansan was found within a very short time , which was considerably cheaper. Panorama, however, did not let the members of Pro Life go without a fight and took them to the administrative court of the Canton of Zug on June 19, 2003 and then to the Federal Insurance Court . However, this stated in the highest instance judgment issued on January 9, 2006 that the members' power of attorney also allows the termination of existing and the conclusion of new contracts.

Auxilia Assurance maladie, which was later taken over by CSS , was won as a further health insurance partner for western Switzerland . In 2005, Thomas Seitz succeeded both Stössel and Ladner as President. Thomas Seitz works as a clinical psychologist in a group practice in Baden AG and completed his training as an insurance salesman. In 2013, Pirmin Müller, a member of parliament for the city of Lucerne (SVP), became managing director after Weisensee retired due to age.

criticism

In 2006, the National Ethics Commission stated in a statement that the practice of offering cheaper insurance against a morally justified waiver of individual services undermines the principle of solidarity and a de-solidarization that pays off financially cannot be ethical. According to the opinion, the affected services include termination of pregnancy, invasive methods of prenatal diagnosis , in-vitro fertilization and drug replacement therapy with methadone . There is also a risk of expanding this approach and thus the risk that, for example, non-smokers against smokers, opponents of transplantation against transplant recipients, athletes against unsportsmanlike people, men against women or young people against older people. The commission criticizes the existing offers for not making it clear enough that an abortion would have to be paid for in any case because it would belong to the statutory basic insurance catalog. Pro Life is also criticized for encouraging members' children who turn 16 to sign the waiver. For these reasons, the Commission recommended that the voluntary waiver of statutory benefits should be prohibited. Weisensee responded as managing director of Pro Life with the statement "We show solidarity among ourselves" and invoked the "protection of minorities that is upheld in Switzerland". However, the ethics committee was unable to enforce its recommendation. According to a motion submitted by Josef Zisyadis on March 16, 2006 , the Federal Council confirmed on May 24, 2006 the right to waive statutory benefits, although this can be revoked at any time with effect for the future.

Activity in Germany

With the support of Pro Life, ProLife Deutschland GmbH & Co. KG, an independent company based in Heroldsbach, was founded in Germany in 2009 . So far, however, ProLife Germany has not yet been able to build on the success of Pro Life in Switzerland with only 1,200 customers referred to the BKK IHV . In June 2012, the BKK IHV ended its cooperation with the German ProLife company under pressure from the Federal Insurance Office . In February 2013, the association announced a declaratory action against the health insurance company. The aim is to examine the legal durability of the allegations that led to the termination of the contract.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Commercial Register of the Canton of Bern, company number CH-035.6.011.256-5
  2. ↑ Articles of Association Article 2 (3)
  3. ↑ Imprint . In: Gerd J. Weisensee (Ed.): Official organ Pro Life . tape 13 , no. 2 , 2012, p. 5 .
  4. ↑ Articles of Association Article 2 (5)
  5. ↑ Articles of Association Article 4
  6. ↑ 20 years of PRO LIFE , p. 17.
  7. ↑ 20 years of PRO LIFE , pp. 18–19.
  8. ↑ a b c 20 years of PRO LIFE , p. 20.
  9. ↑ At the time when Zwygart was elected Central President of the EPP: Who's Who: Otto Zwygart. Retrieved April 28, 2013 .
  10. ↑ 20 years of PRO LIFE , p. 18.
  11. ↑ 20 years of PRO LIFE , p. 22.
  12. ↑ Ladner-Lerch (Rüfenacht) Marguerite, (1949-). Dictionnaire du Jura, accessed April 28, 2013 (French).
  13. ↑ 20 years of PRO LIFE , p. 24.
  14. ↑ Premium increase at the Panorama health insurance company. Insurance Online Switzerland, April 28, 2003, accessed on July 26, 2013 : "The fund's reserves fell well below the legal requirements in the past financial year, Panorama writes in a message."
  15. ↑ Low premiums for pious people. Neue Zürcher Zeitung , accessed on April 28, 2013 .
  16. ↑ Permitted mass termination. Neue Zürcher Zeitung , accessed on April 28, 2013 .
  17. ↑ BGE 132 V 166. Project German-speaking case law (DFR) at the University of Bern , accessed on April 28, 2013 .
  18. ↑ 20 years of PRO LIFE , p. 28.
  19. ↑ 20 years of PRO LIFE , p. 29.
  20. ↑ Fritz Imhof: handover at Pro Life. Livenet, May 31, 2013, accessed July 26, 2013 .
  21. ↑ Opinion No. 12/2006. National Ethics Committee in Human Medicine, archived from the original on July 23, 2013 ; Retrieved April 29, 2013 .
  22. ↑ Cheaper health insurance premiums for not having an abortion. Ärztekasse Genossenschaft, Thônex , accessed on April 28, 2013 .
  23. ↑ Cheaper premiums for not having an abortion. Swiss radio and television , accessed April 28, 2013 .
  24. ↑ 06.3060 - Motion: No discounts on health insurance premiums if you do not have an abortion. Swiss Parliament, accessed April 29, 2013 .
  25. ↑ 20 years of PRO LIFE , p. 30.
  26. ↑ a b Cash register announced cooperation - ProLife brokered 1,200 abortion opponents. KATH.NET, accessed April 28, 2013 .
  27. ↑ press release. BKK IHV , June 21, 2012, archived from the original on June 30, 2012 ; Retrieved April 28, 2013 .