Rejection of exemption from mandatory health insurance in Switzerland for a managing director of a Swiss company who is privately insured in Germany

Facts

The German national V., born in 1975, took up employment as the sole signatory managing director of the X. GmbH, a company domiciled in Switzerland, in which he holds a 50% stake as a shareholder, in mid-July 2004. He carries out his professional activities abroad (in Europe) for approximately 70% of the time. At the beginning of August 2004, he applied for an exemption from the mandatory health insurance in Switzerland, citing his existing health insurance with Allianz Private Krankenversicherungs-AG in Germany, whose coverage also extends to Switzerland. The Social Insurance Office Schaffhausen (Compensation Fund) rejected this application for exemption.

Considerations

The Federal Court examined the constitutionality of the provisions of the Health Insurance Ordinance (KVV) that only allow exemption from the mandatory health insurance in Switzerland within narrow limits. It concluded that these provisions do not violate the law, the Federal Constitution, or the Agreement on the Free Movement of Persons (ALCP).

In particular, Art. 2 para. 2 KVV provides for an exemption only for persons who are mandatorily health insured under foreign law, but not for persons with voluntary private health insurance abroad. Art. 2 para. 8 KVV, which provides for an exemption for persons who, due to their age and/or state of health, cannot or can only be insured at hardly bearable conditions, is also not applicable to the complainant, as he does not have…