[Patient assistance and preventive medicine in the shadow of the Public Health Service].

The Swiss Health Leagues are difficult to characterize as a group because field of activity, services, number and kind of members, organizational structure, role in the public health care system and finances differ considerably among them. With the help of private donation, subsidies of the State and a considerable amount of non-remunerated work, they provide special services, adapted to specific needs, a complement of the Swiss health care system often forgotten in the continuing discussions about the cost and structure of health services.