For-profit hospitals flourish in Switzerland

Since 2012, the government of Switzerland has successfully integrated private for-profit hospitals into its system of universal health coverage. 

Integrating Private Health Care into Canada’s Public System: What We Can Learn from Switzerland | Fraser Institute | Yanick Labrie:

June 12, 2025 - Executive Summary 

"Access to timely care remains the Achilles’ heel of Canada’s health systems. To reduce wait times, some provinces have partnered with private clinics for publicly funded surgeries—a strategy that has proven effective, but continues to spark debate in Canada. This study explores how Switzerland successfully integrates private health care into a universal public system.... 

• In Switzerland, universal coverage is delivered through a system of managed competition among 44 non-profit private insurers, while decentralized governance allows each of the 26 cantons to coordinate and oversee hospital services in ways that reflect local needs and priorities.
• Nearly two-thirds of Swiss hospitals are for-profit institutions; they provide roughly half of all hospitalizations, births, and hospital beds across the country.
• All hospitals are treated equally—regardless of legal status—and funded through the same activity-based model, implemented nationwide in 2012.
• The reform led to a significant increase in the number of cases treated without a corresponding rise in expenditures per case, suggesting improved efficiency, better use of resources, and expanded access to hospital care.
• The average length of hospital stay steadily decreased over time and now stands at 4.87 days in for-profit hospitals versus 5.53 days in public ones, indicating faster patient turnover and more streamlined care pathways.
• Hospital-acquired infection rates are significantly lower in private hospitals (2.7%) than in public hospitals (6.2%), a key indicator of care quality.
• Case-mix severity is as high or higher in private hospitals, countering the notion that they only take on simpler or less risky cases.
• Patient satisfaction is slightly higher in private hospitals (4.28/5) than in public ones (4.17/5), reflecting strong user experience across multiple dimensions.

"Canada could benefit from regulated competition between public and private providers and activity-based funding, without breaching the Canada Health Act."

Read more: https://www.fraserinstitute.org/studies/integrating-private-health-care-canadas-public-system-what-we-can-learn-switzerland

Read study: https://www.fraserinstitute.org/sites/default/files/2025-06/integrating-private-health-care-into-canadas-public-system.pdf