Well, the cost of compulsory health cover adds up, but it sounds like the 'gap' won't be any worse than what you are paying in the US...

You might also be pleasantly surprised that it's unusual to wait for long at appointment with doctors here - appointments are efficient...in Australia a family member takes a whole day off to go to diabetes clinics...it takes most of a day....here in Zurich we can be at the hospital in 20 minutes (walking!) and then we are rarely at the hospital more than 1 hour...

For diabetes camp it's 7 days residential! - I think saturday to Saturday. The volunteer helpers are all diabetics, and they take nurses, educators and doctors from the kinderspital with them - so I think it's extremely well organised...when our son turned up they knew straight away who he was, that he spoke mostly english, and that he was from Australia - although he is known at the hospital anyway, as the 'Australian' kid...

The camp is from age 7 to about 14. After that they become 'volunteers' and can come as helpers...

I've fixed my inbox so you can PM me now...

I don't know the cost of sets and insulin for the pumps, but I can't imagine it's much more expensive than needles, pens and tips... the gap would be maybe 5chf on a vial on insulin - so the gap fee might be cheaper than your US costs-you may be pleasantly surprised...

The cost of compulsory medical cover is around 80chf per month for kids, and you get around 150chf tax rebate per child per month on your salary...so it balances out... adult cover might be 350chf per person per month, with all the extras and a low deductible...