Suva (insurer)

The Suva, headquartered in Lucerne, is the Swiss National Accident Insurance Fund. It is a public-sector insurer and leading provider of health care coverage for employees in case of accidents in Switzerland.

Name
The name is the abbreviation of Schweizerische Unfallversicherungsanstalt (German for Swiss National Accident Insurance Fund, in French Caisse nationale suisse d'assurance en cas d'accidents or CNA; in Italian Istituto nazionale svizzero di assicurazione contro gli infortuni).

History
It was founded 1912 and its active since 1918. For a long time, it held a monopoly for compulsory coverage for employees in high-risk professions. Its surplus income is distributed to insureds in the form of premium reductions.

Its three missions are prevention, insurance and rehabilitation. About half of people working in Switzerland are insurance by the Suva in case of accidents (128,000 companies and 2,000,000 people insured).

Unemployed people are insured against accidents by the Suva. Since 2005, the Swiss Armed Forces are also insured against accidents by the Suva.