A direct consequence of the increase in premiums, requests for health insurance subsidies have increased constant in recent years. In the canton of Vaud, it is sometimes necessary to wait many months for the administration to make its decision. What revive the issue of automated treatments.
More than a year ago, Alice Kübler sent a request for health insurance subsidies. Today she is still waiting. “I am told that it is a complicated case because I have an artistic activity. It is a bit frustrating,” said this 24 -year -old Lausannoise in the 12:45 am RTS.
Holder of a bachelor in literary writing, Alice Kübler devotes two days a week to the editorial staff of her first novel. In parallel, she works as a part -time waitress. “The end of the month is quite rough,” she concedes.
Longer deadlines
According to the Directorate General for Social Cohesion (DGCS), the case of Alice Kübler is rare. For people who make a first request and provide a complete file, “the decision falls almost in the four months,” says Fabrice Ghelfi.
The director of the DGCS specifies: “If a person requests a reassessment of his right, because there have been changes in his private or professional life, the waiting time is around seven months”.
These waiting times were significantly prolonged following the strong increases in successive premiums. Precursor, the canton of Vaud is also the only one in Switzerland to limit health insurance premiums to 10% of income, a measure introduced in 2021.
>> Read also: The cap at 10% of income is “the only social correction of a premium system which is not at all”
That year, 9,200 new subsidies had been sent to the Vaudois Office for Health Insurance. This figure went to 16,900 last year, an increase of more than 80% in three years. Today, more than a third (36.9%) of the Vaudoise population perceives a subsidy, or nearly 310,000 people.
Vaud more generous, but slower
If the canton of Vaud is among those which grant the most subsidies, it is also the slowest to deliver them.
To relieve the administration and specifically accelerate the procedures, the cantons of Geneva, Neuchâtel, the Jura and the Valais have introduced an automatic evaluation system, on the basis of tax taxation.
This measure did not convince the right majority of the great Vaudois council, which refused last winter a resolution on automation. “We fear that it is a watering can, which affects people who do not necessarily need this subsidy,” notes Florence Bettschart. The PLR deputy quotes the example of a student, “who would not necessarily need a subsidy if her parents pay her health insurance”.
For the left, however, automation has two advantages. “Currently, there are many people who cannot or who cannot make the request. This will drastically reduce the waiting time and allow the right to affect these subsidies,” defends the socialist deputy Sébastien Kessler.
Currently, more than 25,000 requests to reassess subsidies and some 7,000 new requests are awaiting a decision in the canton of Vaud. In the event of a positive response, the beneficiaries will be entitled to a retroactive payment.
Yoan Rithner
