Parliament session: An autumn of anxiety

What did the autumn parliament session bring? A lot of controversy, but little progress, especially from the perspective of the Swiss abroad. The great disappointment for the Swiss Abroad was the rejection of a postulate that wanted to make a Swiss health insurance solution possible for expatriates. The House of Representatives only narrowly said no to this proposal by Centre Party Parliamentarian Elisabeth Schneider-Schneiter. The attempt was a modest step, yet it failed. The issue now seems to be closed for a long time. "We Swiss abroad seem to have a poor lobby in the People's Party, Radical Party and Liberal Green Party; we need to work on this in the future," comments Josef Schnyder, delegate for the Swiss abroad in Thailand. "The problem that many Swiss Abroad have no or inadequate health insurance remains," says Schnyder. For the time being, however, child support pensions seem to have been saved, at least until the next session, as they provide many retired expatriates with ...