Table 1 Overview of data sources used in decomposition of spending

National Health Accounts NHA (FSO) [21]

Total yearly health care spending by four perspectives (health services, health service providers, financing regimes, payers)

Total spending by service, service provider, and payer

The list of services was modified to obtain 20 distinct and comprehensive services. Some service categories were aggregated, while others were created by combining types of services and providers.

Inpatient hospital registry HospReg (FSO) [19]

Complete registry of all inpatient cases in acute care hospitals and psychiatric and rehabilitation clinics. Includes ICD-10 diagnoses and procedures according to Swiss classification of surgical interventions CHOP

Sex, age, ICD-10 diagnoses, transfer to nursing home, case-level information such as length of stay or DRG cost weight for assignment of spending for inpatient services covered by MHI and other social insurance schemes

HospReg uses the ICD-10-GM (German Modification) which, for the purposes of this study, is largely comparable to the ICD-10 classification of the World Health Organization.

Inpatient hospital registry from canton of Zurich HospRegZH (Zurich Cantonal Department of Health)

Complete registry of all inpatient treated cases in acute care hospitals in the canton of Zurich. In addition to variables in HospReg, it also includes case-level costs (costs of service provision).

Sex, age, ICD-10 diagnoses, to adjust the spending for each case for the presence of comorbidities.

Only used as auxiliary input to the comorbidity adjustment in inpatient acute somatic care.

Swiss Health Survey SHS (FSO) [22]

Large representative population survey on health status, health behaviour, health care utilization, conducted every five years since 1992

Prevalence of osteoporosis by sex and age; number of dentist visits by sex and age

SWICA Health insurance claims data (data extraction for this study)

Full claims data for treatments covered by MHI, full claims data for treatments covered by accident insurance for non-work force individuals without compulsory accident insurance under Accident Insurance Act

Prevalence of ‘other’ (residual) disease categories and well care; spending for all outpatient services covered by MHI; spending for inpatient long-term care covered by MHI, injury spending covered by MHI by age, sex, and service provider, prevalence of other injuries by sex and age

SWICA is a large representative MHI insurer with a market share of 8.1% in 2017.

Suva Accident insurance claims data (data extraction for this study)

Full claims data for treatments covered by accident insurance for work force individuals

Spending for all outpatient and inpatient services covered by accident insurance (mainly injuries)

Number of cases by year, injury category, age, and sex

Suva is a large public accident insurer covering around 50% of the national work force, mainly in industrial production, construction, and transport.

IV mandatory national disability insurance claims data (Federal Social Insurance Office) (data extraction for this study)

Aggregated health care data by sex, age, type of health service, category of disability

Spending for all outpatient and inpatient services covered by disability insurance by sex and age

IV covers all health care spending for the treatment of congenital birth defects until the age of 20 years.

Global Burden of Disease study [23]

Global study on epidemiology of a wide range of diseases, injuries, and risk factors. Includes detailed estimates for Switzerland.

Prevalence rates by year and disease by sex and age

Study measures overall prevalence, not only treated prevalence.

STATPOP population statistics (FSO) [24]

Yearly statistics on the size and structure of the Swiss population

Population size by year, sex, and age