Should basic health insurance cover only the cheapest equivalent medicines?

AI-generated summary, admin reviewed: This initiative sought to lower medicine costs by requiring basic health insurance to reimburse only the cheapest equivalent medicines. When a generic was available, doctors and pharmacies would have been required to prescribe or provide it. It also would have allowed medicines approved in neighbouring countries to be sold without an additional Swiss approval check. Supporters argued that these measures would reduce prices and insurance costs. Opponents warned that removing domestic checks could endanger patient safety and that mandatory use of the cheapest medicine would restrict medical judgement. Swiss voters rejected the initiative.

Seed source: Swissvotes federal popular vote dataset.
Swissvotes page: https://swissvotes.ch/vote/475.00
Official result data: https://bk.admin.ch/de/details-volksinitiativen?voteNumber=475
Vote date: 2001-03-04
Original Swissvotes English title: Initiative «für tiefere Arzneimittelpreise»
Original German title: Initiative «für tiefere Arzneimittelpreise»
Swissvotes short-description title: Die Initiative für einen Generika-Zwang erzielt einen Achtungserfolg
Original French title: Initiative «pour des médicaments à moindre prix»
Année Politique Suisse description: https://anneepolitique.swiss/prozesse/28121
BFS result map (German): https://mapexplorer.bfs.admin.ch/?obs=politic&lang=de#c=indicator&i=vp20010304.prop_oui_475_0
BFS result map (French): https://mapexplorer.bfs.admin.ch/?obs=politic&lang=fr#c=indicator&i=vp20010304.prop_oui_475_0
Official chronology (French): https://bk.admin.ch/fr/details-initiatives-populaires?voteNumber=475