Insurance in Switzerland: A Long Tradition
Insurance in Switzerland runs deep. It began in the Middle Ages when guilds and cooperatives helped people during illness, death, or loss. Modern insurance took shape in the 19th century. Swiss Re was founded in 1863 and focused on reinsurance. Switzerland became a leader in life and non-life insurance. Its strong financial sector helped, as did its stability. Today, insurance is vital to Switzerland’s economy. Many big insurers are based there.
The Health Insurance Hike of 2024
Late in 2023, people in Switzerland were talking about health insurance premiums. They were rising for 2024, by around 8-10%. Premiums depend on where you live, your age, and your coverage. In Switzerland, everyone must have health insurance. It doesn’t matter if you’re a citizen or not. It’s the law. Still, people complained. Many switched insurance companies before November’s deadline. By summer 2024, the government banned insurers from contacting people to sell them new policies.
The Summer Floods of 2024
The summer of 2024 brought floods. June through August saw heavy rains in parts of Switzerland. The floods made headlines. Then came the questions: Why did it happen? Who’s to blame?
Weeks later, there was a small article. One of Switzerland’s oldest insurance companies had reported its losses. They had covered CHF 75 million in damages by mid-2024. CHF 47 million was from floods alone (Source: www.mobiliar.ch, accessed 07/07/2024). This company is a cooperative. Customers share in its profits. I’m one of them. I wonder how they will explain this year’s lower profit share.
Insurance in Texas: A Sharp Rise
In Texas, things were different. In 2024, people living near Austin got new insurance quotes. Premiums for 2025 had jumped 322%. They went from $450 to $1,839 (Source: BBC, 18.03.2024, “Climate Change is Fueling the US Insurance Problem”). The change came because of new floodplain maps. It’s only a matter of time before Swiss insurers update their maps. And when they do, premiums will rise. By how much, no one knows yet.
Growth and Its Costs
The talk of insurance leads to bigger questions. Growth is still king. Everyone accepts it. But it’s not without a cost. Greenpeace says that Migros, the biggest retailer in Switzerland, is pushing meat sales. It tells its customers too, to live sustainable. Google’s carbon footprint grew by 13% because of AI. Nvidia announced its growth would be in the triple digits. But growth needs energy, and most of the world’s energy still comes from fossil fuels (85% – 87%). We are still tied to that, like it or not.
To know or not to know
Parts of the developed world will live like the developing countries for long stretches of the future. This is our future. At least, it’s the darker of two futures predicted by a report from Swiss Re, done by Harvard’s Center for Health and the Global Environment. The unsettling part? This report came out in 2005 (Source: Bill McKibben, Eaarth, p. 67).
Having a Plan
Mike Tyson said it best before his 1987 fight with Biggs: “Everybody has a plan until they get hit.” The environment is hitting us now. Hard. The number of disasters is rising fast. The first punch took the plan away. Now, the blows keep coming. There’s no time to recover. Just watch the insurance companies!
Observation
Since the writing of above this developed: Swiss Re communicated on 22. 08.2024 that the first half of the year (beginning of January till end of June) was concluded with a 2,1 Billion USD profit, based on a brutto insurance turnover of 22,4 Billion USD. (Source, St. Galler Tagblatt, 23.08.2024). In the US, Car insurance premiums could rise by 50% in 2024, as per an article be Money Watch on 19. August 2024.
New info since publishing this article: In March 2024, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen suggested that consumers are dealing with consequences: “Americans across the country are seeing the affordability and availability of their insurance policies decline as a result of increasingly severe climate-related disasters.” Source: https://usafacts.org/articles/is-home-insurance-getting-more-expensive/ accessed 11th Sept 2024