Switzerland’s health costs are among the highest in the world (only the United States, the Netherlands, France,
Germany, and Canada spent a larger share of GDP in 2011). The introduction of regulated competition among
nonprofit health insurers and among service providers in 1996 aimed to contain costs as well as to guarantee
high-quality, comprehensive health care, and to establish greater solidarity among the insured. While scientific
analyses and public perception have been particularly critical of competition’s ability to cut or control health
care costs, the other objectives are generally regarded as having been successfully achieved.