Refusal to issue an insured person's card to a person with temporary admission in Switzerland

Facts

[A.] has temporary admission in Switzerland and was affiliated with the mandatory health insurance with Avenir Assurance Maladie SA. He requested this insurer to issue him an insured person's card, but his request was rejected. [A.] then referred the decision to the Cantonal Court of the Canton of Vaud, which dismissed his appeal. [A.] then filed a public law appeal and a subsidiary constitutional appeal with the Federal Tribunal.

Considerations

The Federal Tribunal ruled that the refusal to issue the insured person's card to [A.] was contrary to the principle of the primacy of federal law. Indeed, the issuance of the insured person's card is exhaustively governed by federal law, in particular by Art. 42a of the Federal Health Insurance Act (HIA) and the Ordinance on the Insured Person's Card (ICO). The Federal Tribunal considered that the cantonal provisions invoked by the health insurer to refuse the issuance of the card could not take precedence over federal law in this area.

The Federal Tribunal therefore upheld the public law appeal and ordered the health insurer to issue an…