Switzerland will ask Italy to reimburse the medical expenses for those injured in the fire at the ‘Le Constellation’ bar in Crans-Montana. “If there is the despicable request for medical expenses for Crans-Montana, Italy will reject it outright,” Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni wrote on social media. “If this despicable request should be formalized, I announce now that Italy will return it to the sender and will give it no follow-up. I trust the sense of responsibility of the Swiss authorities and I hope the report proves completely unfounded,” the prime minister concluded.
This position was also reiterated by Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani. “It seems obvious to me that we will not pay” the medical expenses of the young people injured at ‘Le Constellation’. “Responsibility lies solely with those who ran that venue and with those who did not carry out the necessary inspections…”
Switzerland’s request
The president of the Valais Council of State, Mathias Reynard, confirmed during a meeting with the Italian ambassador in Bern, Gian Lorenzo Cornado, that there is no legal scope for a direct assumption of the healthcare costs related to Italian citizens injured in the New Year’s Eve tragedy in Crans-Montana. “We have no leeway from a regulatory standpoint to take on these expenses,” he explained, clarifying that the management will follow the procedure provided by the Swiss system through the joint institution LAMal. This was reported by Corriere del Ticino.
According to the report, it will be LAMal that determines “which insurance covers which service,” with involvement from the Italian insurance counterparts. Switzerland will therefore not proceed with direct reimbursement of the invoices, while any remaining balances may be covered only residually at the cantonal level. “Except for those residual amounts, there are no possibilities for direct intervention,” Reynard reportedly specified, while noting the need for coordination with Bern for a possible bilateral solution, in respect of the principle of reciprocity with the Canton of Valais.
Lawyer for families of the injured: “Unacceptable to request reimbursement of medical expenses from Italy”
“Switzerland will request reimbursement of medical expenses from Italy,” writes in a statement lawyer Fabrizio Ventimiglia, representing the relatives of one of the young people injured in the New Year’s fire in Crans-Montana. “We learn this with dismay! If the point is truly that ‘this is what the law says,’ then that law must be changed and quickly.” “It is frankly unacceptable that, in the face of a tragedy of this scale, one could even entertain the idea that Italian citizens, or indirectly the Italian state, should bear the, to put it mildly, exorbitant medical expenses incurred in Switzerland,” the lawyer adds, “here we are not dealing with an ordinary hospitalization, but with the consequences of a very serious event with respect to which, the initial findings of the investigations indicate, there appear to be failures to comply with safety regulations at multiple levels.”
“Turning all this into an accounting shuffle between healthcare systems is a distortion that stands up neither legally nor, above all, in terms of fairness,” the lawyer emphasizes, arguing that “those who have the duty to guarantee safety, and do not do so, cannot then simply apply an accounting rule coldly. They must assume, fully and also financially, the consequences of what happened.”
Also read