Government aims to relieve the burden of health insurance premiums; Switzerland may start importing chlorinated US chickens to appease President Trump; and more news in our roundup on Monday.
Government’s counter-proposal to health insurance initiative comes into force
The Federal Council is acting on its counter-proposal to the popular initiative calling for health insurance premiums to be capped at 10 percent of the household income – a move that was rejected in a June 2024 referendum.
The counter-proposal states that from January 1st, 2026, cantons will be required to make a contribution to financing premium reductions, so as to ensure that the financial burden remains sustainable for households.
To this end, cantons will be required to define the maximum burden that premiums must represent in relation to disposable income.
According to the counter-proposal, cantons must grant annual premium reductions equivalent to a specified percentage of the gross costs of mandatory health insurance.
The Health Ministry will determine the gross cantonal costs in order to set each canton’s minimum share, as well as the federal contributions, so that the cantons can prepare their budgets accordingly.
Chlorinated chickens from the US could be sold in Switzerland
This news may be hard to swallow, but it shows to what lengths the Swiss government will go to get President Trump to lower the tariffs on its imports.
To get a better deal, the Federal Council is considering lifting the ban on imports of American poultry treated with chlorine and raised on industrial farms.
This concession to Washington is, not surprisingly, raising criticism.
The Swiss Poultry Producers Association finds the idea of chlorinated poultry “absolutely unacceptable.”
As for the Green Party, it pointed out that “Switzerland spends billions to support its agriculture. With cheap, environmentally harmful, and unhealthy imports, we are undermining this strategy.”
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Traffic jams are a major problem for most Swiss
A narrow majority – 57 percent of Switzerland’s population – consider congested roads a big problem, according to a survey carried out by the GfS research institute on behalf of Auto Schweiz motoring organisation.
Therefore, most of the country’s residents are not only backing the expansion of public transport, but also the construction of new roads.
Some 76 percent of respondents now clearly support the expansion of the motorway network, even though voters had rejected this move in a referendum in November 2023.
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Geneva’s plan for public transport via the lake
To reduce the notoriously congested road traffic, the Department of Health and Mobility (DSM) is developing transport on Lake Geneva.
The DSM highlights two priority areas.
First, “long” links between the two banks, to bypass the city centre, such as the future “blue route” between Corsier and Bellevue.
This regular service will be integrated into the cantonal perimeter and the Unireso fare system if it proves to be successful following the planned three-year pilot project.
Second, direct cross-lake connections are also under consideration, with a priority being the future link between Cologny and the centre, via Les Pâquis or Les Nations.
These short-distance connections, identified as a strategic corridor, would make it possible to cross the lake in just a few minutes and avoid the detour through the city centre and multiple transfers on the land network.
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