Coverage is universal, with residents mandated under the 1996 Federal Health Insurance Act (FHIA) to purchase
statutory health insurance (SHI) from competing insurers. There are virtually no uninsured residents.
Every individual intending to reside in Switzerland is required, within three months of arrival, to take out an
insurance policy, which is then applied retroactively to the arrival date. The federal council acknowledges the
unsolved problem of missing SHI for undocumented immigrants and supports better insurance coverage for
these “sans papiers.”