parl. Initiative Eder (16.411): For the protection of personality also in the supervision of health insurance.
Not yet discussed in the Council
Submitted text
Based on Article 160 paragraph 1 of the Federal Constitution and Article 107 of the Parliamentary Act, I submit the following parliamentary initiative:
The Federal Law on the Supervision of Social Health Insurance must be adapted to ensure personal data protection. The following amendment to the law represents a possible way of doing this:
KVAG Article 35 Paragraph 2bis (new)
The information on the data is to be provided in grouped form, so that no conclusions can be drawn about individual data of the insured persons.
KVAG Article 35 Paragraph 2ter (new)
For the implementation of risk equalization, the insurers provide the required individual data to the joint institution (Art. 18 KVG).
Justification
As part of the so-called “EFIND data collection”, the supervisory authority is in the process of setting up a comprehensive collection of individual health data of all insured persons in Switzerland. However, there is no formal legal basis for this, which means that the requirements of the Data Protection Act are being violated.
The fact is that the law does not allow the supervisory authority to process individual data of the insured persons and the implementation of the supervision of health insurance does not require individual data of the insured persons either. The collection of individual data by the supervisory authority thus contradicts the principles of legality and proportionality. Article 35 KVAG explicitly states that insurers are required to provide “information on data”, but not that the data itself must be provided. The legal formulation thus effectively excludes the provision of individual data to the supervisory authority. A clarification of the legal basis would be useful to clarify the situation (new Article 35(2bis)).
Only for the implementation of the morbidity-based risk equalization (Articles 16 – 17a KVG, in force from January 1, 2017) is data on the insured persons required. Here, the development work has revealed the corresponding need, as can be seen from the total revision of the Ordinance on Risk Equalization in Health Insurance (VORA). The corresponding data must be made available to the joint institution (new Article 35(2ter)).
Overall, it proves to be expedient to regulate the issue of individual data collection in the area of health insurance as proposed. The “Gemeinsame Einrichtung KVG” is charged with the implementation of risk equalization and is thus predestined for the purpose-bound data collection outside of supervision.
Finally, it should be noted that this need for clarification exists independently of the entry into force of the new Health Insurance Supervision Act KVAG. In particular, the proposal does not aim to call into question the KVAG in whole or in part.