My son is ten months old today, and I've just dug out the bill from the hospital (Unispital Zurich, staying on a ward). I had a vaginal delivery, but with an epidural and finished off with a vacuum extraction. Although it was a fairly complicated delivery, I thought the staff at the Unispital were first rate. My bill puts the 'ANQ-Pauschale' at CHF 3,999.60. I assume that was the three nights I spent in the hospital after the birth, and the price for the complicated delivery was CHF 4,186.80. This was of course all covered by the basic insurance.
In my experience, you should discuss with your Obyn. and they get in touch and arrange things with the hospital. Most have some type of arrangement with the hospital. Hospital will then contact you or your insurance for paperwork. At least in Geneva it was like this for me.
i had a general insurance which did not allow me to give birth with the Doc I wanted. We decided to deliver our twins at Unispital Zuerich, which is one of the best in Switzerland for pre-term babies (was afraid they would be born pre-term, but thanks God they were not).
So I upgraded the doc ( and hence the room as my Doc was looking after semi-private and privately insured clients) and paid 8.000 CHF from my pocket. Insurance covered 2`500 CHF additionally.
When I decide to conceive the third child, first thing I will do -upgrade my insurance to semi-private. And have check-ups/delivery again at Unispital.
There is no way I would give birth at private hospital, as in case (cross fingers) anything goes wrong with a child/mom - both will be transported to the cantonal hospital.
The quality I got at Unispital is superb! I will never forget my birth experience with them and praying God to have that great experience with them again. One day
My Obyn apparently does not contact the hospital at all (Mine is in Germany)
She said it is up to me to register with the hospital. I asked if she would need to send them my file. She said No, all they need is my Mutterpass.
(Which apparently they don't use in Switzerland).
So basically there should be no reason for any contact between he two.. which I find odd. However, as she said my mothers pass does contain every detail of info about me.
For any one who is interested, here is the link to the form for registration:
It also explains to you what documentation you need depending on your circumstance: Married, Single, Living in Switzerland, Not living in Switzerland etc...
Normally the mother will be insured before the birth. What is not appreciated is that the unborn baby also needs to be insured before the birth! In Switzerland you need to sort out the baby's health insurance before the birth, it doesn't have to be the same company. However the Swiss health insurance premiums are only charged after the successful birth, and are very low, basic is about Fr 100 per month.
The baby will be covered by mothers' insurance if born prematurely, so this is not an issue.
The issue is however, that when you want to take supplementary insurance it's best to do it beforehand, as the insurance will not have any reasons to deny it. If baby is born with complications, they might and will deny supplementary insurance.
You also don't have to pay a single rappen until the baby is born.
Many insurance companies will not give you supplementary insurance before the baby is born. You can request it in advance, but the additional coverage will not be provided until after additional paperwork is filled out once the baby arrives. My first son had private insurance upon birth. My soon to be born daughter has her insurance with a different company who will only up to private after she is born.
I started looking in January 2014 for a place in January 2015... Nada!
Luckily, I've managed to find a very nice nanny (minding in her home). The only reason she has a space is because he child will start school so she is legally allowed take on one more!
Mine wont let me take cover in advance. However, they did say they will insure through my policy for X days and as long as I renew in those days then it will automatically be accepted. Phew!
Many people told me I should insure my son before he was born, in case of complications, however since we only ever intended to get basic insurance this was not an issue for us, as this must always be granted. I didn't realise at first that you only need to look at sorting out insurance before birth if you want private or half-private, and so ended up quite confused about the thing at the time.
It doesn't cost you anything if you are insured. And you should be insured if you are living here in Switzerland. For our, relatively uncomplicated, pregnancy it cost 12.5k. Bear in mind that cost is subsidized by the state before charged to you/your insurance. Without standard insurance, i.e. Private, it's a lot more.
It will not cost you anything (even c-section if it is inevitable) if you have swiss insurance. But if you are a foreigner and you have to pay your bill yourself and send it later to your own insurance, then the bill is around 8000 CHF for a natural birth and 4 days stay in Hospital.
If any one is interested I have the answer to my original question..
I was 12 days over due by the time I was admitted to hosp on a Thursday morning to be induced. After some complications I had an emergency section at midnight Friday... and I signed out of Hosp bright and early Monday morning.