Swiss health vote scheduled for Sunday

BERN, Switzerland— Swiss voters will decide on Sunday whether their nation should have a single health insurer.

The initiative that comes to a vote on Sunday was launched in 2004 by the left-leaning Mouvement Populaire des Familles, which claimed the current system is too costly. The group gathered more than 110,000 signatures to force a vote on the constitutional change.

Residents will vote whether to replace the 87 insurance companies that currently provide health coverage with a single state-run insurer that would charge premiums based on wealth and income.

Health premiums in Switzerland have risen steadily in recent years and opponents of the single-insurer proposal claim it would send premiums even higher.

Under Swiss law, all residents are required to take out basic health insurance.