From 1 July 2024, HIV PrEP will be covered by compulsory health insurance, subject to certain conditions. This will have implications for both availability and costs.
On 1 July 2024, an evaluation whether the costs for HIV PrEP should be covered by compulsory health insurance will begin. Also, this is being done as part of the national programme (NAPS), which aims to eliminate new transmissions of HIV by 2030.
With the evaluation, which is set to run until December 2026, the Federal Department of Home Affairs (FDHA) will assess whether covering HIV PrEP costs would be effective, appropriate and economically viable – and whether HIV PrEP should be permanently added to the list of treatments paid for by compulsory health insurance.
The evaluation is being carried out within the existing SwissPrEPared network. This means that, from 1 July 2024, only suppliers who are affiliated with SwissPrEPared and authorised as service providers under the compulsory health insurance system will be able to start billing HIV PrEP costs through health insurance.
Individuals will still be able to cover the costs in full themselves. In fact, some clients are reliant on this option, especially those who don’t have health insurance or are worried about their HIV status being disclosed. In most cases, however, someone would be worse off financially if they chose not to have the HIV PrEP costs covered by compulsory health insurance.
Here are the most important questions and answers:
for SwissPrEPared participants
Further information on PrEP and the cost coverage by health insurance for PrEP users can be found under www.aids.ch.