Hi all,
Have a question on birth hospital - i am a residence in Schwyz but I found a doctor in Zurich and I would like to give birth in Hirslanden.
My insurance in a basic one and only for hospital stays in my own kanton, have you had experiences in using Zurich hospitals? If so, what additional cost you have to pay? Thank you so much in advance.
For my treatment (not a pregnancy!) in Zürich I only had to pay the normal 10%, but then I had a referral from my home Canton. AFAIK, out of Canton referrals are generally not a problem if there is a good medical reason. That may include private hospitals such as the Hirslanden. Ask your insurer.
You will probably need extra coverage. Good news is that it must not be from the same insurer.
It is for child birth/ maternity ward.
Thank you!
The problem is that they usually exclude pregnancy and birth related cover within the first year precisely to avoid this kind of thing.
Some Hirslanden places count as ‘cantonal’ for some procedures, others are fully ‘private’. Even if the first case, base insurance does not cover it as you live in a different canton.
For seeing a doctor, it is not an issue as you would simply pay the difference between the tariffs of the two cantons, which is minor. But for cantonal hospital stays, most of the cost is paid by the canton directly to the hospital and only a small part goes to your health insurance. So the choice of ‘paying the difference’ does not apply, as the cantonal subsidy would not be applicable.
For some cases (eg accident-emergency-hospital full-lack of appropriate treatment-strange geography-cantonal exclaves) the home canton may allow you to use a public hospital to a different canton (or a private hospital to the same canton) on a case by case basis. But unless all the maternity beds are full in Zug I somehow doubt this would be the case.. but then again Zug canton has a lot of money)..
The best way would be to ask directly Hirslanden hospital, they will be able to advise and they definitely know as they deal with cases like that all the time (even people from abroad). Actually, if you choose to use them, they will contact and check with the health insurers beforehand anyway, if anything to ensure that there will be no nasty surprises. They will do this way in advance, even 2-3 months, as soon as the doctor gives them the details.
As for the cost, of course it would depend on the days stayed and the procedures that were needed. they will advise precisely. Getting extra insurance now is not possible as anything birth related is excluded in the 1 (or more) years of coverage.